European shares inched higher early in a shortened session on Tuesday before the New Year break, with pan-European indexes set to post their biggest annual gains since 2009, Reuters reported. Volumes were extremely low as many European stock markets including Germany, Italy and Switzerland have already closed for the year. UK markets were set to close at 1230 GMT and Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon at 1300 GMT. At 0900 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.2 percent at 1,314.89 points while the euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index was up 0.1 percent at 3,103.94 points. Germany's DAX rose by around 26 percent, and was only beaten by smaller, less liquid stock exchanges such as Dublin's Irish Stock Exchange index which has risen roughly 34 percent, or the Athens General Share Index, which is up by around 28 percent.
