Europe dragged down by Wall St.

Trader checks share prices at Frankfurt Stock Exchange

LONDON, England (CNN) -- European markets ended lower after telecom-inspired gains were wiped out by early declines on Wall Street after a cautious report on consumer confidence.

London's FTSE 100 closed down 1.2 percent to 5,074.2 and the CAC 40 blue chip index in Paris slipped 0.5 percent to 4,339.57, while Frankfurt's electronically traded Xetra Dax was down 1.1 percent to 4,908.04 in late trading (the German market was set to close at 1900 GMT).

The pan-European FTSE Eurotop 300, a broader index of the region's largest stocks, lost 1 percent.

The market received an early boost from Vodafone (VOD), Europe's biggest mobile phone company. It posted a net loss of $24 billion for the year to March 31, but earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 44 percent. (more) Vodafone shares ended down 1.9 percent to 103 euros in London, after rising more than 7 percent at the start of trading.

Vodafone's results helped lift other telecom stocks, although some of their early gains were also eroded by the end of trading.

France Telecom (PFTE) closed up 5.3 percent to 21.80 euros after the French finance ministry said it saw no reason for the debt-laden group to raise additional funds to pay down debts with a sale of shares. (more)

Its mobile phone operator Orange (ORA), Europe's third-largest, gained 3.4 percent to 6.07 euros, while No. 5 operator mmo2 (OOM) fell 1.6 percent to 47.5 pence ahead of its full-year result on Wednesday.

Deutsche Telecom (FDTE) was down about 1 percent to 12.32 euros in late Frankfurt trading. At the group's annual general meeting on Tuesday, Chief Executive Ron Sommer attempted to deflect shareholder anger over a dramatic fall in the group's share price by blaming financial markets for failing to pick winners. (more)

Air France (PAF), Europe's third largest airline, was unchanged at 18.21 euros in Paris. The carrier posted its impressive full-year results late on Tuesday.

In the financial sector, Britain's fourth-largest bank Barclays (BARC) fell more than 4.4 percent to 598.22 pence after it said in a quarterly trading statement that costs and bad debt provision continued to rise, though overall the start to 2002 was solid. (more)

In Amsterdam the AEX index lost 0.6 percent and Milan's MIB30 index slipped 0.1 percent, while the SMI in Zurich fell 0.4 percent.

In the U.S. on Tuesday, Wall Street declined after a survey showed that consumers are becoming concerned about the economy and that could threaten the fragile recovery.

The Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose to 109.8 in May, near forecasts. But the survey's expectations index slipped to 109.4, compared with 109.6 in April.

At midday, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 75 points, or 0.7 percent, to 10,029, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was off 17 points, or 1 percent, to 1,644.