Franfurt DAX:

Germany's blue-chip Xetra DAX closed lower after vaulting over the 4,600 point level for the first time ever in early trade.

The DAX-30 index closed at 4536.83, down 51.60 points, or 1.12 per cent. In later screen-based trade the Xetra DAX index ended at 4509.37, down 43.09 points, or 0.95 per cent.

Dealers said well-received domestic corporate news was offset by concerns about Wall Street's performance and the desire to take profits on recent strong gains.

Metro ended up among the top percentage gainers, up more than 5 per cent on the back of better than expected 1997 earnings.

Paris CAC-40:

Investors stepped in to take profits in the Paris share market, helping the bourse to consolidate gains which took the CAC index to successive new highs this week.

Bank of France Governor, Mr Jean-Claude Trichet saw the rise in French equities as a catching up by Paris after underperforming compared to other financial markets.

Profit-taking took France Telecom down 2.51 per cent, Legrand were down 4.73 per cent, Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux were down 3.64 per cent.

Oils took a battering, with ALF Aquitaine losing 2.12 per cent to 645 and Total leaking 2.69 per cent to 615 as Brent futures fell below $15.

Milan Mibtel:

Italian shares closed at the day's low as the Dow Jones index opened weaker and investors seized the opportunity to take profits after some shares hit record highs yesterday.

Bank and insurance shares were the biggest decliners. Banca Commerciale fell 4.1 per cent to 7,990 lire, Banca Intesa dropped 2.5 per cent to 8,175 lire and Banca di Roma was down 3.3 per cent at 2,425 lire.

Investors switched out of banks and into industrials. Eni shares pared earlier gains to close 0.7 per cent higher at 10,460 lire, Fiat rose 1.1 per cent to 6,220 lire and Pirelli gained 2 per cent to L4,840.