A mixed morning on Wall Street took the gloss off end-of-millennium celebrations in Europe. Soaring financial and technology stocks had sent bourses further into record territory early in the day but some could not maintain the momentum. Frankfurt pushed up to a ninth straight closing high as further demand was seen for financial stocks, beneficiaries of the government plan to scrap tax on the sale of domestic shareholdings by one company in another. The Xetra DAX index put on 55.02 to 6,837.41.

The FTSE Eurobloc 100 index edged 1.898 higher to 1,358.54 while the FTSE Eurotop 100 index added 4.98 to 3,576.94 and the FTSE Eurotop 300 index gained 3.27 to 1,548.77.

Paris missed out on its 38th record close of the year as weakness in TotalFina pulled the CAC 40 index back from a high above 5,900 to close 18.03 weaker at 5,834.47.