Major stock markets outside the United States ended on Wednesday.
Allianz rose for the fifth day in a row, with the day's 2 percent gains stoked by a report in a German stock market newsletter that Deutsche Bank was in talks to buy the retail operations of the insurer's Dresdner Bank unit. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index closed 0.4 percent stronger at 1,620.2, paring a 0.7 percent fall seen in the past two days.