Frankfurt featured a 7 per cent surge in Deutsche Bank on news that it planned to spin off 40 billion deutschmarks of its industrial holdings into a new company.
The shares jumped DM6.50 to DM99, but the rest of the market failed to make much progress on a day of light and volatile trade. The Xetra DAX closed 6.44 higher at 4,569.70.
The motor sector came under renewed pressure after Monday's rebound. VW led the way down with a fall of DM5.40 to DM120. BMW lost DM26.60 to DM1,064.40 and DaimlerChrysler lost 95 pfennigs to DM149.70.
Paris ended little changed with the CAC-40 index up 10.55 at 3,673.76 Oil leader Total, up 3.9 per cent, provided the day's firmest feature.
Total added 22 French francs at Ffr577. Along with the energy sector generally, the shares have been hit by a 50 per cent decline in international oil prices over the past 13 months.
There has also been broker pessimism over the recent acquisition of Belgium's PetroFina.
A good day for financials left Amsterdam at its high for the session with the AEX index 18.27 higher at 1,083.89, a gain of 1.7 per cent.
Volumes were mostly dull but financials came in for steady buying.
Fortis Amev jumped 5.20 guilders or 4 per cent to FL136.70 while ABN Amro rose 80 cents to fl36.40 in 7.9 million shares traded.
Milan ended marginally higher after a handful of large companies performed strongly on an otherwise quiet day's trading.
The Mibtel index gained 138 or 0.6 per cent to end at 21,698.
