By Marc Jones
LONDON (Reuters) - Chinese and U.S. stocks headed the list of 2014 top performers while markets elsewhere ended the year on a wary note as another sharp drop in oil and worries about Greece's future served as an excuse to take profits.
The U.S. dollar lost a little of the recent gains that have made it the year's star major currency on Wednesday, but European bonds yields scored all-time lows following a shockingly sharp fall in Spanish inflation on Tuesday.
European stocks wrapped up the year 3.5 percent higher overall with some striking exceptions, such as near 30 percent losses for debt-strained Greece and Portugal.
The stand-out global equity performer has been China, where the CSI300 index ended 2014 with gains of nearly 50 percent after two final blockbuster months when hopes grew of more policy stimulus and foreigners won wider access to Chinese stocks.
Wednesday featured hefty gains for China's biggest train makers, China CNR and CSR Corp, after they confirmed a $26 billion merger.
"China stocks have done really well this year and the dollar move has also been very interesting," said Alvin Tan, an FX strategist at Societe Generale in London. "It barely moved against the other major currencies in the first of the year and all the big gains came in the second half."
Among the scraps of news in Europe, two polls in Greece published late on Tuesday showed the anti-bailout party Syriza's lead over the ruling conservatives had narrowed.
Reports that Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah had been admitted to hospital for tests sent stocks there tumbling, with another oil price fall adding to downward pressure.
Trade elsewhere was thinned by holidays in Japan, Thailand, South Korea and the Philippines, while many markets in Europe were either shut or finishing early for New Year festivities.
Europe's government bond markets were already closed after another year when a global flood of cheap money has helped take Italian and Spanish borrowing costs to record lows and given ultra-safe German debt its strongest year in six.
BUY DOLLARS, WEAR DIAMONDS
The dollar was on track to end 2014 up 12 percent against a basket of major currencies, its best performance since 2005, and anticipated U.S. interest rate hikes may strengthen its appeal in the new year.
It eased against the safe haven yen as U.S. trading began to stand at 119.64 from Tuesday's peak of 120.69, while stock futures pointed to small gains for a Wall Street which has jumped 13 percent and hit repeated record highs this year. [.N]
The euro, undermined by bets that the European Central Bank will have to start buying government bonds to avert deflation, was stuck at $1.2154 having touched a 29-month trough of $1.2123.
ECB policymaker Peter Praet told a German newspaper, "If my assessment is that there is a need for further accommodation, and if I were willing to cut rates if that had been possible, then I should not be paralysed by the fact that the only option is to buy sovereign bonds."
Having already halved this year, crude prices slumped another $1.70 to near $56 a barrel as weak Chinese manufacturing data and demand concerns outweighed supply disruptions in Libya. [O/R]
Copper, of which China is the biggest consumer, looked set to post its biggest annual decline in three years at 14 percent, while traditional safe-haven gold hovered at $1,200 an ounce to end the year roughly where it started.[GOL/]
Emerging market stocks and bonds were on track for their second straight year in the red, especially Russia.
The rouble was down 4 percent on the day as a 43 percent plunge since January left it heading for its weakest year since Russia defaulted in 1998. [EMRG/FRX]
(Additional reporting by Wayne Cole in Sydney; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
