Closing stock market indices

Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Thursday.
EUROPE STOCKS EXCHANGE: A clutch of strong earnings figures from blue chips like Dutch insurer ING helped Europe's top stock indices move higher, but US crude oil prices back above $40 a barrel cast a shadow.
Smith & Nephew shares also soured the mood, shedding 10 percent after the British medical device firm missed forecasts for second-quarter earnings.
Investors were holding their breath ahead of the publication on Friday of US employment data for July, hoping for signs that growth in the world's biggest economy was sustainable.
The FTSE Eurotop-300 index of pan-European blue chips added 0.14 percent to end unofficially at 977.5 points in summer-thinned volumes of barely 2 billion euros.
FRANKFURT STOCKS EXCHANGE: The DAX index ended at 3,829.03 points, up 5.29 or 0.14 percent.
PARIS STOCKS EXCHANGE: The CAC-40 index closed at 3,622.98 points, up 15.4 or 0.43 percent.
ZURICH STOCKS EXCHANGE: The Swiss market index closed at 5,515.2 points, down 3.7 or 0.07 percent.
MILAN STOCKS EXCHANGE: The All Share Mibtel index closed at 20,484 points, down 87 or 0.42 percent.
SYDNEY STOCKS EXCHANGE: Stocks fell 0.2 percent for a second straight session as investors fretted about media giant News Corp after its UK pay-TV unit, BSkyB, disappointed with a bleak earnings outlook.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index lost 7.1 points to end at 3,538.9.
JOHANNESBURG STOCKS EXCHANGE: Stocks ended their nine-day winning streak on profit taking but petrochemicals group Sasol kept shining thanks to higher oil prices.
The All-share index closed at 10,419.49 points, down 28.24 or 0.27 percent.
The All Gold index closed at 1,697.19 points, down 18.62 or 1.09 percent, while the Industrial index closed at 7,380.28 points, down 5.85 or 0.08 percent.