European shares pared losses and turned mixed yesterday afternoon after a leap in French utility Suez and a firm opening on Wall Street, but price war fears kept UK supermarkets under water.

A bounce back from Wednesday's selloff in technology stocks, led by Nokia and SAP, also kept the overall market's losses in check.

SAP rose 5.6 per cent to e90.70 after confirming its ability to withstand a slump in global software spending by saying it would hit its 2002 profit goal.

By 1444 GMT, the FTSE Eurotop 300 index was off 0.2 per cent at 869.7 points. Declining and advancing issues were roughly matched in steady volume.

The pan-European index is barely above the end of 2002 close of 857.01 points, which marked the third down year in a row. The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index was 0.08 per cent higher at 2,451 points.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.6 per cent to 8,654 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.7 per cent to 1,425 points.

Investors are still worried about a possible war in Iraq, and are braced for shocks in the upcoming fourth quarter earnings season.