Frankfurt Dax: 4166.24 (+7.56) The Frankfurt DAX closed floor trade with a slight gain as the market took little inspiration from the Bundesbank's decision to leave interest rates unchanged.

Wall Street's so-called "triple witching hour" on Friday restrained after-hours trading, and the Xetra Dax - which tracks allday electronic trading - closed on 4162.92

Triple witching hour marks the day on which stock futures, options on stock indices and options on individual stocks all expire at the same time.

Earlier the Bundesbank said M3 money supply growth slowed to 4.7 percent in November from 5.1 percent in October, and announced at its regular council meeting that it would hold its main money market rate, the repo, at 3.30 percent for the next three weeks.

Paris CAC-40: 2894.50 (+1.25) The French market closed marginally firmer with a small number of stocks accounting for most of the trading volumes. The market drifted in sympathy with the weak opening in New York.

Shares in Metaleurop rose almost 15 per cent despite two suspensions but traders could give no clear response for the sharp rise apart from stating that the share had fallen sharply recently. A few shares - carparts maker Bertrand Faure, banking group Paribas, insurer AGF and bank CCF accounted for a fifth of the total volume on the Paris market.

Faure closed up nearly ten per cent on 421.9 francs after being requoted following the 430 francs bid from Peugeot. Peugeot was up seven per cent on reports that it was going to move ahead with plans to combine production with Citreon.

Milan MIBTEL: Italian shares closed higher in thin trade ahead of Friday's expiry of stock options, but closed below the all-time high on Wednesday. Trading was dominated by the banks with IMI and San Paolo both losing ground as expectations of an imminent link-up between the two faded rapidly.

Other banks were selectively well-bought, led by Credito Italiano, which was up nearly 1.25 per cent and Ambroveneto which raced ahead 2.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, shareholders of Italian state aerospace and engineering group, Finmeccanica approved a two trillion lira - £825.5 million - capital increase , the company's managing director said.