Closing stock market indices

Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Thursday.
EUROPE STOCKS EXCHANGE: European shares, led by financials and technology issues, ended at a one-month low as thin earnings and economic diaries left investors wrestling with worries over the fallout from record oil prices.
Investment banks such as BNP Paribas and UBS were among the biggest decliners, shedding between 1.3 and 2.1 percent after the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said it and other regulators would meet 14 top banks next month to discuss practices in the booming credit derivatives market.
The invited banks have not been named. But British bank Lloyds TSB bucked the downward trend, gaining 1 percent on talk that Wells Fargo, the number five US bank, could be circling to make a bid.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst index of 300 blue chips shed 0.7 percent to 1,172.57, posting its fourth consecutive lower close and retreating further from three-year highs struck this month.
FRANKFURT STOCKS EXCHANGE: The DAX index ended at 4,856.01 points, down 59.94 or 1.22 percent.
PARIS STOCKS EXCHANGE: The CAC-40 index closed at 4,378.51 points, down 45.92 or 1.04 percent.
ZURICH STOCKS EXCHANGE: The Swiss market index closed at 6,484.96 points, down 52.04 or 0.80 percent.
MILAN STOCKS EXCHANGE: The All Share Mibtel index closed at 25,608 points, down 169 or 0.66 percent.
SYDNEY STOCKS EXCHANGE: Shares fell to a two-week low, weighed by a near 4 percent decline overnight in index heavyweight and the world's top miner BHP Billiton. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 9.2 points, or 0.21 percent, to close at 4,437.2.
JOHANNESBURG STOCKS EXCHANGE: Stocks fell for the third straight day as record oil prices and worries about global growth hit miners but retailer Woolworths bucked the trend after posting sturdy annual earnings.
The all-share index dipped 52.18 or 0.34 percent to 15,382.89 points. The All Gold index closed at 1,642.17, down 31.52 or 1.88 percent, while the Industrial index closed at 11,425.47, down 50.55 or 0.44 percent.