Frankfurt DAX:

Germany's DAX index ended the day well ahead, buoyed by gains on the Dow Jones Index and the relative strength of the dollar, but lacking meaningful data to forge more significant gains.

There were more winners than losers among the top 30 blue-chips, but Germany's two largest commercial banks, Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank AG, were notable exceptions from the afternoon's roll-call of gainers.

Dresdner shares were hit after rating agency Standard & Poors (S&P) lowered its long-term counter-party rating and senior unsecured ratings for the bank to double "A" from double "A+", dealers said.

Dresdner responded in a statement to say S&P had not weighted sufficiently Dresdner's considerable so-called "hidden reserves" in lowering the debt rating.

Paris CAC-40:

The Paris market lost ground at the start of the day's business, but then rallied to post a mild gain for the day as the CAC-40 index finished at 2700.66 points, up 0.15 per cent. Traders said the market remained wary of possible effects on western economies of upheavals on Asian financial markets. Trading was rather active with volume on the monthly settlement market of 6.6 billion francs. The French bond market declined. Among individual issues, Credit Lyonnais bank, which had suffered a sharp loss on Wednesday following a judge's search of its headquarters, gave up another 5 per cent yesterday. Euro Disney announced a 7.5 per cent rise in annual profits and said it was raising entry prices to its Paris Disneyland theme park.

Milan Mibtel:

Shares eased in the afternoon session to close off the day's high, with little impetus to the market. The exception was insurance stocks, to which investor attention has switched from banking stocks.

A number of the major insurance stocks rose strongly, notably Assicurazioni Generali, whose price rose by 1.87 per cent on strong interest from investors. The company also benefited from a buy recommendation from brokers Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. The group's stock is now trading at 39,450 lire and Italian analysts say that the price could reach as high as 50,000 lire in the longer term, if a proposed deal with French group AGF goes through.

Meanwhile, Fiat's share price fell by almost 0.5 per cent on concern about its interests in Brazil, where the economy has been hit by a sharp increase in interest rates. Overall, however, Fiat is seen by analysts as performing more strongly than many other European car companies.