Major stock markets outside the United States ended on Wednesday.
Optimism that the new US administration was moving quickly to stabilise the ailing banking sector and Wells Fargo's announcement that it was maintaining its dividend and did not need more taxpayer funds also improved sentiment, analysts said. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index ended 3.2 percent higher at 810.82 points, but is still down 2.6 percent this year after plunging 45 percent in 2008 on a credit crisis and an economic slowdown that threatens to become a slump.