EUROPEAN REPORT: A relatively subdued trading session across most of the European bourses - Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland were closed and trading in Germany and France was affected by the bank holidays - was given a minor boost by Goldman Sachs, which upgraded its stance on the European banking sector.

Frankfurt DAX: 3,094.76 (-32.70); Paris CAC: 3,055.23 (-37.98)

Goldman raised its view of the sector to "attractive" from "neutral". It said: "European bank earnings have been in a downward trend for over two years plagued by down markets, slowing economic growth and upward credit provisioning needs. We believe that losing streak is about to snap."

Goldman's preferred stocks in the sector included BNP Paribas, Société Générale, UBS, Credit Suisse, Unicredito, San Paulo IMI and SEB.

It lifted its recommendation on Société Générale to "outperform" and increased its price target on the stock to 65.20. SocGen shares settled a net 0.7 per cent easier at 54.85. Unicredito was the best of the bunch, adding 1.8 per cent at 3.94.

Crédit Agricole shares edged up 0.5 per cent at €17.36 mark, despite bearish comments on the almost completed merger with Crédit Lyonnais from Dresdner Kleinwort Benson.

Meanwhile, shares in Italy's Capitalia eased 1.4 per cent to 1.38 amid reports that the bank was about to launch a three-year bond to raise 300-500 million.

Nokia, the Finnish telecoms equipment maker, had an unsettled day ahead of the release of a trading update later today.

In late trade, the stock was down 1.7 per cent at 15.28 after sliding as low as 14.85 following a profit warning by rival Motorola. Nokia had been aiming for sales growth of 12-14 per cent in its mobile phone operation, but was less sanguine about the group's performance as a whole.

Among Nokia's European rivals, Alcatel of France shed 3.4 per cent, to 7.94, while Germany's Siemens eased 2.1 per cent to 42.45.