Closing stock market indices

Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Tuesday.
EUROPE STOCK ECHANGE: European stocks rose to a 4-1/2 year closing high as a persistent stream of take-over news offset several disappointing corporate earnings outlooks.
The market remained in the grips of frenzied merger speculation, with British retailers Kingfisher and Dixons jumping on talk that they might be taken over after rival Kesa Electricals snubbed a private equity bid.
French utility Suez added 5.4 percent after Italian state-controlled utility Enel moved closer to launching a multi-billion euro bid despite Paris announcing a merger of Suez with state-controlled Gaz de France.
Portuguese bank Millennium BCP rose 4.5 percent on expectations that its bid for local rival Banco BPI could still be thwarted by competing bids or by BPI shareholders.
The M&A-fuelled optimism withstood earnings worries, sparked by Deutsche Post and Belgian biotechnology firm UCB, and an unexpected worsening in March of German investor sentiment according to a ZEW institute survey. The pan-European FTSEurofirst index of 300 leading shares closed 0.17 percent higher at 1,366.30, its highest close since mid-2001.
FRANKFURT STOCK ECHANGE: The DAX index ended at 5870.88 points, up 15.72 or 0.27 percent.
PARIS STOCK ECHANGE: The CAC-40 index closed at 5117.16 points, up 9.69 or 0.19 percent.
ZURICH STOCK ECHANGE: The Swiss market index closed at 8034.22 points, down 1.22 or 0.02 percent.
MILAN STOCK ECHANGE: The All Share Mibtel index closed at 29470 points, up 148 or 0.50 percent.
SYDNEY STOCK ECHANGE: Australian shares fell as mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were pressured after China said it would monitor iron ore prices, but expectations of media sector consolidation spurred stocks like publisher John Fairfax. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 19.1 points, or 0.39 percent, to close at 4,932.2.
JOHANNESBURG STOCK ECHANGE: Petrochemicals firm Sasol led South African stocks higher, spurred by higher oil prices as the market recovered from a sell-off last week. The All-share index was 344.41 points or 1.82 percent higher at 19,289.68 points. The All Gold index closed at 2606.68 points, up 72.19 or 2.85 percent, while the Industrial index closed at 13982.18 points, up 238.73 or 1.74 percent.