Closing stock market indices

Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Tuesday.
EUROPE STOCK EXCHANGE: European shares ended at a 6-1/2 month trough, battered by worries that aggressive monetary tightening could damage economic growth, with commodity-related stocks heading the market's march down.
Mining stocks such as Anglo American and Antofagasta tumbled 3.7 percent and 5.4 percent respectively on concern about global slowing demand for metals, while heavily-weighted energy stocks also staggered as oil dipped more than 2 percent.
Financials added to the market's woes, with Alliance & Leicester down 5.6 percent on disappointment that French suitor Credit Agricole bought a bank elsewhere.
The rest of the sector fell sharply amid worries that a 12 percent slide in European stock markets in the past month will have dented financial institutions' equity portfolio. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares shed 2.1 percent to 1,238.74 points, its lowest closing level since November 30, 2005.
FRANKFURT STOCK EXCHANGE: The DAX index ended at 5,292.14 points, down 103.41 or 1.92 percent.
PARIS STOCK EXCHANGE: The CAC-40 index closed at 4,617.59 points, down 105.59 or 2.24 percent.
ZURICH STOCK EXCHANGE: The Swiss market index closed at 7,154.86 points, down 177.83 or 2.43 percent.
MILAN STOCK EXCHANGE: The All Share Mibtel index closed at 26,585 points, down 413 or 1.53 percent.
SYDNEY STOCK EXCHANGE: Shares fell 2.56 percent in their largest one-day decline since 2001 to close at their lowest in almost four months on worries about rising US interest rates and a slide in commodity prices. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index closed down 127.1 points at a session low of 4,838.9.
JOHANNESBURG STOCK EXCHANGE: South Africa's major indexes tumbled more than 4 percent as investors fretted about global interest rates, while gold mining shares slid on lower prices for the yellow metal. The All-share index closed at 18,380.06 points, down 760 or 3.97 percent.
The All Gold index closed at 2,360.1 points, down 193.93 or 7.59 percent, while the Industrial index closed at 12,502.2 points, down 457.96 or 3.53 percent.