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Closing stock market indices .

LONDON Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Friday.

FRANKFURT - The German DAX index rose to its highest close in 10 sessions, fuelled by bid speculation swirling around merging utilities Veba and Viag, car makers DaimlerChysler and BMW, engineering group ThyssenKrupp and index heavyweight Deutsche Telekom.

The DAX closed 3.09 percent or 237.64 points higher at 7,932.42, a rise of 221.50 from Friday week.

PARIS - The Paris Bourse ended higher as a late drive by France Telecom and another flying start by the U.S. Nasdaq helped turn a tentative rally into solid gains.

The CAC-40 ended up 1.53 percent or 95.95 points at 6364.26, rising 59.98 from last week.

ZURICH - Swiss shares closed around one percent firmer as strong gains in banking and insurance stocks marked a revival in the long-neglected financial sector.

The blue chip Swiss Market Index added 80.2 points or 1.09 percent to 7,440.4, up 339.8 over the week.

MILAN - Milan stock indices closed higher as media and telecoms stocks returned to favour, helped by a strong start on Wall Street where the tech-heavy Nasdaq was up over two percent by the close in Milan.

The all-share Mibtel index ended up 2.68 percent or 860 points at 32,946, down 719 from March 17.

AMSTERDAM - Dutch shares closed higher, buoyed by gains in KPN Telecom and ASM Lithography.

The AEX blue chip index closed up 1.7 percent or 11.59 points at 683.48, an 11.30 gain from the previous Friday.

SYDNEY - The Australian share market crept to a higher close, wary of Wall Street's big overnight jump and full of pre-weekend nervousness.

The benchmark All Ordinaries Index finished up 3.9 points or about 0.12 percent at 3,247.4, a rise of 44 points from last Friday.

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's bourse finished firmer after weeks of losses on a rally in financial stocks as money flowed back into banks and insurance issues.

The All Share index ended the day 0.87 percent or 70.8 points higher at 8,209.1, up 211.5 from March 17, Industrial index closed at 9653.8 up 53.4 points or 0.56 percent, rising 114.1 over the week, while the Gold index ended down 3.2 points or 0.28 percent at 1144.9, falling 2.6 on the week.-Reuters