Closing stock market indices

Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Wednesday.
EUROPE STOCK EXCHANGE: European shares closed over half a percent lower as tech stocks fell after Apple Computer missed expectations on quarterly revenue while drug stocks had a mixed day with Schering dropping.
The German company lost over 4 percent after it said it would stop giving uterine drug asoprisnil to patients in an extension to a late-stage trial due to adverse effects.
"This drug is close to dead," said Equinet analyst Martin Possienke. "It's difficult to believe that you can bring a drug to the market for benign tumours that causes complications needing invasive procedures." Other pharmaceutical stocks rose, however, after US company Pfizer won a patent battle, while GlaxoSmithKline had already been boosted by an upgrade from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein to "add". The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index closed 0.7 percent lower at 1,204.3 points, further distancing itself from a 41-month high of 1,242.2 points struck last week.
FRANKFURT STOCK EXCHANGE: The DAX index ended at 4,981.77 points, down 50.69 or 1.01 percent.
PARIS STOCK EXCHANGE: The CAC-40 index closed at 4,515.05 points, down 34.63 or 0.76 percent.
ZURICH STOCK EXCHANGE: The Swiss market index closed at 6,918.97 points, down 46.7 or 0.67 percent.
MILAN STOCK EXCHANGE: The All Share Mibtel index closed at 25,755 points, down 183 or 0.71 percent.
SYDNEY STOCK EXCHANGE: Shares bounced from six-week lows as big miners benefited from further gains in copper prices and banks were buoyed by the central bank's balanced view on the domestic inflation outlook. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index rose 39.4 points, or 0.89 percent, to close at 4,468.2.
JOHANNESBURG STOCK EXCHANGE: Stocks tip-toed higher buoyed by the world's top two platinum producers, Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum on the back of strong metal prices. The All-share index closed at 16,332.45 points, up 28.55 or 0.18 percent. The All Gold index closed at 2,181.85 points, up 8.48 or 0.39 percent, while the Industrial index closed at 11,853.64 points, down 33.93 or 0.29 percent.
MUMBAI STOCK EXCHANGE: All Indian financial markets were closed for trading on Wednesday for Dussehra, a popular religious festival.