European shares ended mixed as weak pharmaceutical stocks and fresh inflation and interest rate concerns took the shine off a market powered by energy stocks.
Numico also weighed, plunging 5.7 per cent as dealers deemed the Dutch food group's acquisition of rival Danish baby food rival EAC too expensive, and said a planned rights issue to help finance the deal capped the stock. By 1645 GMT the FTSEurofirst 300 index was 0.02 per cent firmer at 1,237.9 points, having retreated from an earlier peak of 1,242.9, its highest level since April 2002.
Investors were reluctant to stretch a two-week market rally of nearly six per cent as colder temperatures lifted oil prices back above $58 a barrel, and amid caution ahead of US reports on producer and consumer prices, due later in the week.
Many observers said the reports should show relatively benign inflation in the world's biggest economy, quelling concern of sharp monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve.
Interest rate worries also resurfaced in Europe after two European Central Bank policymakers said the ECB should not wait for an inflationary outbreak before raising eurozone rates.
"A return to a tightening policy in the euro zone next year will represent the withdrawal of a key support that the euro zone has had relative to the United States this year," said JPMorgan strategist Abhijit Chakrabortti.
Yet, JPMorgan strategists said a resilient global economy, still robust earnings from both sides of the Atlantic and fading inflationary worries in the United States made way for further equity gains, at least to the year-end.
In the meantime, a slight rise in oil prices helped support the European energy sector, with BP up 1.5 per cent, while Total gained 1.8 per cent, also buoyed by bullish comments from Credit Suisse First Boston. The investment bank said the French company's upstream growth visibility was one of the strongest among supermajor peers.
On the downside, Roche shed two per cent after its Japanese unit Chugai told the government that two teenage boys exhibited abnormal behaviour that led to their deaths after taking Roche's anti-flu drug Tamiflu.