Major stock markets outside the United States ended on Thursday.
But the gains were balanced out by somewhat diminished hopes of seeing US Federal Reserve cut its benchmark rate, after robust US data. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index closed 0.33 percent higher, at 1,527.68 points, after falling as low as 1,509.66 earlier in the session. The benchmark index, up 3 percent on the year so far, is still down 6.6 percent since reaching a multi-year high in mid-July.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 11.7 points to 6,251.0 after falling as much as 1.2 percent earlier in the session.
The All Gold index closed at 2,406.92 points, up 26.63 or 1.12 percent, while the Industrial index closed at 20,263.64 points, up 19.96 or 0.10 percent.