Frankfurt saw steady selling of financials amid interest rate uncertainty ahead of next week's meeting of the Federal Reserve.
Deutsche Bank came off €2.30 at €97.55 and HypoVereinsbank €2.35 at €66.25. Insurance leaders Allianz and Munich Re fell €4.90 at €379.60 and €3.90 at €326.10 respectively.
The heavy cost of German mobile phone licences continued to haunt telecoms. Deutsche Telekom fell to €45.75 before recovering modestly to €46.10, down €1.09. Mobilcom fell €11.35 at €107.55.
The Xetra DAX index was off 44.45 at 7,233.98 at 5.30 p.m. German time.
Paris ended 40.99 lower at 6,594.35 on the CAC-40 index after a 5.2 per cent or €7 decline to €129 for France Telecom, Mobilcom's partner in the German mobile licence auction.
Luxury groups, hit by a recent broker downgrade, stayed dull. LVMH fell €1.90 to €92.60 and L'Oreal €2.70 to €81.90. Total Fina Elf continued to bask in the strength of oil prices, adding a further €2.70 to €177.20. Alcatel chalked up fresh record highs, gaining €2.35 to €85.
Amsterdam experienced dramatic trading in KPN following the departure of a key member of the telecoms leader's German auction consortium. Fears that KPN would have to shoulder a greater burden of the cost of its winning bid sent the stock down 5.6 per cent in 28.3 million shares traded. They ended off €2.01 at €33.99 after a low of €31.71.
Foods group Numico jumped €6.87 or 14.7 per cent to €53.75 on strong results and an upbeat trading statement.
The AEX index ended up 1.82 at 693.75.
Milan remained under pressure from a weak telecoms sector as the German UMTS licence auction raised the prospect of costly Italian third-generation licences. The Mibtel index closed off 166 at 32,241.
Against the trend, oil and gas group Eni jumped 3.4 per cent to €6.68 in further response to soaring crude oil prices and supply concerns. In telecoms, Olivetti lost 2.6 per cent to €3.58, Telecom Italia fell 3.2 per cent to €13.35 and Tim was 2.7 per cent lower at €9.69. Tiscali, whose partner Hutchison pulled out of the German race, shed 0.8 per cent to €46.60.
In Helsinki Sonera was 2.1 per cent lower at €41.15 while the Hex general index jumped 360.94 or 2.8 per cent to 13,502.18.
