European equities stayed volatile with early gains in most centres pared deeply by the close of trading.

Paris, which touched a session peak of 3,451.60, ended with the CAC-40 little changed, up 5.33 at 3,347.98.

Among the heavyweights within the benchmark, Renault stayed out of favour, sliding 13 French francs to Ffr221 for a two-day decline of 15 per cent while France Telecom shed Ffr18 at Ffr384.50. Rhone-Poulenc tumbled Ffr8.50 to Ffr212.50.

Alcatel, down more than 50 per cent in three days following a profits warning, rallied on the back of a presentation to US investors in New York, adding Ffr4 at Ffr514.

Frankfurt gained 110.10 to 4,549.23 on the Xetra Dax index 59 points below the best of the day.

SAP jumped 74 deutschmarks to DM854 after an upgrade to "strong buy" from `outperformer' by Lehman Brothers. Adidas Salomon and HypoVereinsbank both surged more than 10 per cent, advancing DM16.40 to DM173 and DM12.40 to DM138 respectively.

Steel leader Thyssen stayed out in the cold, not helped by competition concerns on the news that Usinor of France was bidding for control of Belgian giant Cockerill Sambre. Thyssen fell DM11.40 to DM304.60.

Amsterdam, one of the weaker European markets in recent sessions, gained 41.27 to 943.89 on the AEX index with strong gains for the international heavyweights supplying most of the fuel.

Milan gained 637 or 3.5 per cent to 18,914 but closed off its day's highs as Wall Street lost initial gains.

Madrid gained ground on technical buying and the general index closed up 22.71 or 3.5 per cent to 674.68.