European stock close:

European stocks were little changed this week as uncertainty in Cyprus and a political deadlock in Italy overshadowed better-than-estimated U.S. and German economic data.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index (SXXP) fell 0.1 percent in a four-day week before the Easter holiday, after declining the most in four months the previous week.

In Europe, German retail sales unexpectedly climbed in February, rising 0.4 percent. That followed a revised 3 percent in January and compared to the median economist forecast for a 0.6 percent decline.

National benchmark indexes still fell in 14 of the 18 western European markets.

FTSE 100 6,411.74 +24.18 +0.38% CAC 40 3,731.42 +19.78 +0.53% DAX 7,795.31 +6.22 +0.08%

Espirito Santo (BES), Portugal’s biggest publicly traded bank, plunged 12 percent in Lisbon. Banco Comercial Portugues SA, the second-largest, lost 10 percent.

Kazakhmys Plc tumbled 16 percent as it cut its 2012 dividend by 60 percent to 11 cents a share and reported a full- year loss after the value of its stake in Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. dropped by more than half.

Telefonica SA slumped 8.3 percent after Spain’s biggest telephone operator sold about 975 million euros worth of treasury stock to help reduce its debt.

Ziggo rallied 13 percent after John Malone’s Liberty Global paid about 632.5 million euros for a stake in the Dutch cable- television operator from Barclays Plc after the U.K. lender last week failed to find enough buyers in a share sale.