Closing stock market indices

Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Thursday.
EUROPE STOCK EXCHANGE: European shares ended little changed as hopes for a cancer pill lifted drugmakers Novartis and Schering, but oil prices at new record highs and weak insurers restrained the advance. Swiss Re shed 3.2 percent despite reporting a forecast-topping 2004 net profit, as large investment gains were seen to be masking weak spots in the reinsurer's underlying business, while a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss pushed Allianz, Germany's biggest insurer, down 1.5 percent.
A warning by Morrison Supermarkets that its year profit would miss market forecasts pressured the retail sector, while spirits group Pernod Ricard fell 2 percent as a strong euro drained underlying profit growth at its top brands. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of pan-European blue chips inched up 0.1 percent to 1,079.6 points.
FRANKFURT STOCK EXCHANGE: The DAX index ended at 4,315.92 points, up 6.81 or 0.16 percent.
PARIS STOCK EXCHANGE: The CAC-40 index closed at 4,032.07 points, up 12.67 or 0.32 percent.
ZURICH STOCK EXCHANGE: The Swiss market index closed at 5,929.05 points, down 15.7 or 0.26 percent.
MILAN STOCK EXCHANGE: The All Share Mibtel index closed at 24,140 points, up 30 or 0.12 percent.
SYDNEY STOCK EXCHANGE: Stocks ended easier, largely shrugging off hefty US declines after oil prices hit a record high and the world's biggest carmaker, General Motors Corp, slashed its earnings outlook. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index shed 12.1 points, or 0.28 percent, to end at 4,232.4.
JOHANNESBURG STOCK EXCHANGE: .Stocks powered to a fresh record peak, lifted by a futures close-out and gains in miners like Harmony Gold after the rand slid. The All-share index closed at 13,703.85 points, up 148.8 or 1.10 percent. The All Gold index closed at 1,807.9 points, up 63.74 or 3.65 percent, while the Industrial index closed at 9,982.59 points, up 70.72 or 0.71 percent.