Faced by another weak opening on Wall Street and further gains for US bond yields, European markets lost ground. However, most ended close to their session peaks while Frankfurt crept back into the black at the close.
The FTSE Eurobloc 100 index ended off 0.3 per cent at 1,103.95 or 0.73 points short of the best of the day. The FTSE Eurotop 100 gave up 0.6 per cent at 3,103.96 while the broader FTSE Eurotop 300 lost 0.4 at 1,344.71.
Frankfurt clawed back into positive territory in the final moments of the session, ending 0.20 better at 5,468.67 on the Xetra Dax index after a low of 5,417.52.
An earnings downgrade at Merck Finck unsettled Metro in early trading, but the retailer finished up €1.95 at €63.28. BMW, which touched a session low of €682.10, finished €21.60 higher at €706.12.
RWE rose 15 cents to €42.25 and Veba 62 cents to €55.39. Viag added €3 at €444.
Volkswagen drove up to €67.30 on the back of a 16 per cent improvement in five-month sales. But the shares ran into worries about used-car recycling costs halfway through the session to close off €1.27 at €65.60.
Software leader SAP was the day's heaviest casualty, sliding €17.80 to €379 following an unfavourable US press report.
Paris rallied from early losses after a second day of heavy selling of the three big banks involved in take-over conflict. The CAC-40 closed 7.05 or 0.2 per cent down at 4,538.04 on heavy trading volume as investors adjusted their portfolios to take account of changes to index weightings.
Banque Nationale de Paris, Societe Generale and Paribas all extended the falls they began on Monday after the central bank asked them to reach a compromise solution in their complex merger and acquisition battle. BNP fell €3.85 or 4.6 per cent to €79.15, SocGen dropped €13 or 7.4 per cent to €163.10 and Paribas ended €4.50 or 4.1 per cent lower at €106.
Amsterdam partly unwound a four-day advance with the AEX index off 5.04 at 577.68 with slippage for market heavyweight Royal Dutch dictating most of the direction.
Oil price worries sent Royal Dutch down €1.05 at €57.45 as Brent Blend wobbled following a threat of increased oil production from Iraq.
Philips added 80 cents at €93.80 after the management of the group's telecoms arm forecast a return to profit within two years.
