European stocks close:

European stocks pared their advance as a report showed U.S. manufacturing unexpectedly contracted, offsetting two measures of Chinese factory output that rose.

Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) jumped 4.2 percent after agreeing to sell its Monaco and Islands unit to Bahrain Telecommunications Co. for $680 million. Colruyt SA (COLR) slid 2 percent after first-half earnings before interest and taxes missed analysts’ estimates.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.1 percent to 276.07 at 4:13 p.m. in London. The gauge earlier climbed as much as 0.8 percent after Greece offered to spend 10 billion euros ($13 billion) buying back bonds.

Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the possibility that Germany will ultimately accept a write-off of Greek debt.

Merkel told Bild newspaper yesterday that euro-area leaders might consider writing off debt once the country has a budget surplus. The chancellor had ruled out such a scenario as violating European (SXXP) Union treaties.

European equities will rally in 2013 with the Euro Stoxx 50 Index reaching 3,000, according to Bank of America Corp. The price-to-earnings ratio for the gauge of the 50 biggest stocks in the euro area will climb to 11.8 by the end of next year, strategist John Bilton wrote in a note. The companies were valued at 11.1 times estimated earnings on Nov. 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

National benchmark indexes gained in 11 of the 18 western- European markets.

Greece’s ASE jumped 1.3 percent, as Piraeus Bank SA (TPEIR) soared 11 percent to 38.9 euro cents and National Bank of Greece SA (ETE), the country’s biggest lender, rose 3.8 percent to 1.37 euros.