European equity markets, under pressure from profit-takers for much of the day, pared their losses towards the close as Wall Street recovered its poise after a mixed morning. The FTSE Eurotop 100 index put on 11.99 to 3,588.93 and the FTSE Eurotop 300 gained 4.50 to 1,553.27, but the FTSE Eurobloc 100 index dipped 0.38 to 1,358.16.

Frankfurt scraped to a 10th successive record close after spending the day in negative territory as worries surfaced that the government's plan to scrap a tax on sales of corporate cross-shareholdings could run into difficulties. The Xetra DAX index finished 24.13 higher at 6,861.54.

Deutsche Bank turned back, giving up 75 cents to €86.25, after posting rises of 22.7 per cent over the previous two trading days. Deutsche, along with other banks and insurer Allianz, had risen on expectations that the tax reform would enable them to offload corporate shareholdings profitably. Dresdner Bank fell €1.10 to $53.60 while Allianz was €5.30 lower at €337.20.

Paris erased most of its afternoon losses as Wall Street turned firmer. However, the CAC-40 index, which has set a series of 37 record closes so far this year, closed 7.39 lower at 5,827.08.

Milan overcame intra-day profit-taking to close at a fourth consecutive record high with the Mibtel index advancing 279 to 28,778.