LONDON - Britain's top shares shed 0.7 percent, tracking early falls on Wall Street and pressured by weaker miners and energy issues as commodity prices fell with a firmer dollar after dull data. The FTSE 100 closed at 5,315.09 points, down 36.98 or 0.69 percent.

@MARKET ROUNDUP:EUROFIRST

EUROPE - European shares fell after US consumer confidence data and house price figures unexpectedly dipped, with banks among the worst performers.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares closed down 1.1 percent at 1,011.62 points after being up as high as 1,029.80 earlier.

@MARKET ROUNDUP:EUROmarkets

FRANKFURT - The DAX index ended at 5,604.07 points, down 84.37 or 1.48 percent.

PARIS - The CAC-40 index closed at 3,707.06 points, down 49.64 or 1.32 percent.

ZURICH - The Swiss market index closed at 6,649.09 points, down 38.32 or 0.57 percent.

MILAN - The FT IT All Share index closed at 21,738.24 points, down 461.43 or 2.08 percent.

@MARKET ROUNDUP:nikkei

TOKYO - Japan's Nikkei stock average edged down 0.47 percent, with exporters like Sony Corp. slipping, as investors held back ahead of congressional testimony by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke later this week. The benchmark Nikkei shed 48.37 points to 10,352.1 after moving in an extremely tight range throughout the day.

@MARKET ROUNDUP:hang seng

HONG KONG - Stocks rose 1.21 percent to their highest close in nearly three weeks, boosted by property shares following strong results at a government land auction which boosted the outlook for the sector. The Hang Seng Index ended up 245.73 points at 20,623.00, the highest closing level since February 3, after falling as much as 1.3 percent in early trade.

@MARKET ROUNDUP:asx

SYDNEY - Stocks ended flat as a note of caution crept into company profit outlooks and investors awaited key testimony from US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke. The S&P/ASX 200 index edged up 0.8 point to 4,718.3, after touching an intraday low of 4,688.2. The index rose 82.4 points on Monday.

@MARKET ROUNDUP:south africa

JOHANNESBURG - South African government bonds weakened after a stronger-than-expected growth data for Q4 2009 dimmed hopes for an interest rate cut while heavy losses in mining shares pulled the local bourse down.

The All-share index closed at 27,055.5 points, down 228.66 or 0.84 percent. The All Gold index closed at 2,177 points, down 45.12 or 2.03 percent, while the Industrial index closed at 21,306.11 points, down 129.78 or 0.61 percent.