European shares headed towards a positive end to trading Tuesday but pulled back from earlier gains as concerns about corporate earnings undercut stocks on Wall Street, according to dpa. After climbing to about 6 per cent in the run-up to Wall Street's opening, Europe's blue-chip Stoxx 50 closed up 3.8 per cent at 2409 points as trading in European drew to a close and the Dow Jones largely gave up an initial 3.5-per-cent increase. As the Stoxx 50 index closed for the day, New York Dow Jones index was up 0.5 per cent at 9447 points. Wall Street's lacklustre start to the trading day came amid new worries about the impact on company earnings of the slowing US economy. The New York Stock Exchange's measured performance on Tuesday also came despite Washington setting out new bold moves aimed at further shoring up US banks in the face of the world financial crisis. By late afternoon trading, stocks in MadridFrankfurt and Paris were up about 2.6 per cent, while Europe's premiere stock market in London had climbed 1.92 per cent. This compared to earlier stronger gains following a renewed sense of optimism on global markets in the wake of the concerted efforts by governments around the world to shore up investor confidence. As Wall Street opened Vienna's leading ATX index soared for the second day in a row, gaining 12 per cent. Moscow had surged by about 14 per cent. In particular, banking stocks enjoyed solid rises. At one point, shares in German mortgage lender, Hypo Real Estate, which emerged as an early prominent victim of the crisis, raced ahead by about 40 per cent in Tuesday trading. The renewed concerns about the economic outlook again helped to drag down oil prices which climbed during trading Tuesday. By late afternoon oil prices were down 1.2 per cent at 80.31 dollars after rising by 4.0 per cent earlier in the day.
