Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Tuesday.
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.