stage clinical trials of a drug the company has been co-developing found that it had shrunk some liver cancer tumours. After a sluggish summer for equity capital markets, investors had a busy day with stock sales. In addition to the Total sale, shares worth up to 1.29 billion euros in Dutch postal and logistics company TPG were being sold, while shares in German tyre maker Continental worth 151 million euros were also being placed, dealers said. "This morning we've had placings to the tune of something like 3.5 billion euros, so these markets are quite resilient," one London-based dealer said. In New York, the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average was flat at 10,072.3 points, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.9 percent to 1,887.5 points by 1616 GMT. Around Europe, London's FTSE 100 closed 0.5 percent firmer, while Paris's CAC-40 ended up 0.4 percent. In Zurich, the SMI rose 0.6 percent and Frankfurt's DAX closed 1 percent higher.
