European stock markets closed narrowly mixed this evening as investors digested solid gains made the previous day and waited for key US jobs data to give them their next lead on a still uncertain economic outlook.
London's FTSE closed 22 points higher (0.4%) at 5,523 this evening, while the Paris CAC edged a point lower to 4,013 and the Frankfurt DAX lost 16 points to end at 6,032.
Dublin's ISEQ index lost 26 points (0.85%) to end at 3,072 after a near 4% fall in index heavyweight CRH. Its shares closed 75 cent lower at €18.75 as it warned that the timing of a world construction recovery was still unclear. The banks made good gains after Finance Minister Brian Lenihan's upbeat comments on his illness yesterday. AIB raced 11.6% higher to €1.50 while Bank of Ireland closed 0.5% up at €1.53.
On Wall Street, investors were similarly wary after gains of 1.5% yesterday, with the Dow Jones down 33 points (0.3%) to stand at 10,551, while the Nasdaq was down three points to 2,306.
Earlier, Tokyo's Nikkei index climbed 0.25% to finish at 10,682, after earlier touching 10,791 - the highest level since October 2008.
