London--Jan. 31--European equity markets ended mostly higher, although the U.K. market retreated as the heavily weighted banking sector came under pressure after news of a $29-billion hostile bid by Lloyds TSB for its rival Abbey National. The U.K.'s FTSE-100 index closed down 50.9 points at 6283.6, Germany's Xetra DAX-30 was up 43.2 points at 6783.24.