An opening spurt on Wall Street and a record-breaking dash by London's FTSE 100 index helped European stockmarkets turn losses into profits yesterday, ahead of the Easter holidays. Germany's benchmark Xetra DAX ended the day's trading almost 1 per cent firmer after recouping earlier losses.

Paris stocks closed up for Easter with the index above 4,200 for the first time since March 19th. In a thin market lifted by early Dow advances, investors were keen to stay covered over the holiday period. The CAC-40 index closed at 4,229.85 points, up 31.97 or 0.76 per cent, up 114.14 since last Friday.

Italian shares ended lower, led by Telecom Italia. The Mibtel index closed at 24,835 points, down 167 or 0.67 per cent up 432 from last week.

Dutch shares, meanwhile, ended slightly weaker, after a modest recovery from early lows inspired by dollar strength. However, continued weakness of heavyweights Unilever, Royal Dutch and ING kept th e AEX main share index in negative territory.

Swiss shares closed a shortened session flat amid lacklustre trade ahead of the Easter holidays.

Trading overall was thin in the run up to the Easter weekend when many markets will be shut for up to four days. Events in Kosovo were also a background concern and deep uncertainty over how the crisis may unfold over the next few days added to the caution.

Dealers said the long break was the euro's main support, but an outside chance of a peace breakthrough in Kosovo when markets are closed meant dealers short of euros were careful not to keep open positions. The euro was trading at $1.08, about one US cent above lifetime lows it set against the dollar on Monday.

Most of Europe has a four-day break for Easter, and when markets resume trading on Tuesday they will have to absorb any reaction to Friday's US employment report and Japan's tankan survey.

On Thursday the European Central Bank will decide on interest rates for the euro zone and many analysts are expecting a cut.