Closing stock market indices

Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Thursday.
EUROPE STOCKS EXCHANGE: Car makers drove European shares to their best close in five weeks, but US inflation and jobs data kept a leash on market sentiment as did heavily weighted drug-makers such as Roche.
Bright spots included Danish telecoms firm TDC, which rebounded 4.8 percent after SBC Communications placed most of its 41.6 percent stake in the operator, while re-surging take-over talk lifted UK security-to-pest-control firm Rentokil by 5.5 percent.
The FTSE Eurotop 300 index of pan-European blue chips added 0.25 percent to close at 1,006 points, while the narrower DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index ended nearly 0.5 percent higher at 2,800 points.
FRANKFURT STOCKS EXCHANGE: The DAX index ended at 4,021.64 points, up 23.88 or 0.60 percent.
PARIS STOCKS EXCHANGE: The CAC-40 index closed at 3,711.38 points, up 12.09 or 0.33 percent.
ZURICH STOCKS EXCHANGE: The Swiss market index closed at 5,680.5 points, down 34.7 or 0.61 percent.
MILAN STOCKS EXCHANGE: The All Share Mibtel index closed at 20,983 points, up 110 or 0.53 percent.
SYDNEY STOCKS EXCHANGE: Stocks closed slightly firmer after a softer domestic currency pulled resources from intraday lows but banking stocks ended weak. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index closed up 1.8 points or 0.05 percent to 3,468.
JOHANNESBURG STOCKS EXCHANGE: The stock market slipped as resource groups such platinum miner Implats were knocked by a firmer rand and a dip in metals prices. The All-share index closed at 10,315.76 points, down 103.76 or 1.00 percent.
The All Gold index closed at 1,740.89 points, down 22.63 or 1.28 percent, while the Industrial index closed at 7,532.77 points, down 58.33 or 0.77 percent.