Closing stock market indices

Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Monday.
EUROPE STOCK EXCHANGE: European stocks rose led by Linde, which clinched a deal to buy rival BOC, Vodafone, on hopes of a special dividend, and Generali on a capital restructuring.
But analysts at Lehman Brothers and J.P. Morgan warned that the party may be over soon as interest rates looked set to rise further and credit analysts at WestLB foresaw a widening of corporate bond spreads especially for telecoms and utilities.
US factory orders fell 4.5 percent in January, fresh data showed, and Wall Street's leading stock indexes were mixed as the European trading day ended.
FRANKFURT STOCK EXCHANGE: The DAX index ended at 5,754.06 points, up 32.6 or 0.57 percent.
PARIS STOCK EXCHANGE: The CAC-40 index closed at 5,010.72 points, up 21.57 or 0.43 percent.
ZURICH STOCK EXCHANGE: The Swiss market index closed at 7,917.18 points, up 1.2 or 0.02 percent.
MILAN STOCK EXCHANGE: The All Share Mibtel index closed at 28,988 points, up 239 or 0.83 percent.
SYDNEY STOCK EXCHANGE: Shares recovered from early lows to end flat with Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd lifted by a $900 million Macau casino deal, but big insurers like QBE, which went ex-dividend, weighed. A flurry of mid- and small-cap mergers supported overall trading activity as the dust settled following reporting season. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 5.4 points, or 0.11 percent, to 4,903.9, recovering from the day's low of 4,869.5.
JOHANNESBURG STOCK EXCHANGE: South African stocks edged higher as fine paper producer Sappi jumped after its chief executive quit but Impala Platinum tumbled after going ex-dividend. The All-share index closed at 19,369.85 points, up 70.29 or 0.36 percent. The All Gold index closed at 2,664.41 points, down 28.51 or 1.06 percent, while the Industrial index closed at 13,794.28 points, up 123.47 or 0.90 percent.