Europe close: Auto stocks pace gains

European stocks finished the session on a mixed note despite the lack of any agreement by OPEC member countries to cap their oil output and little fresh news out of the European Central Bank´s policy meeting, as traders looked forward to Friday´s monthly US jobs report.

The benchmark DJ Stoxx Europe 600 index ended the day up by 0.07% or 0.23 points at 344.35 while Germany’s DAX edged higher by 0.03% or 3.56 points to 10,208.00, while France’s CAC 40 was 0.21% lower by the close of trading.

Auto stocks stood out, registering an advance of 1.11% or 5.38% to 488.87 on the back of slightly better-than-expected figures on US auto sales published on Wednesday and a small dip in the value of the single currency.

Oil prices initially moved lower shortly after midday after news broke that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries had failed to reach any agreement on an oil output 'freeze', but were bolstered towards the close of trading by a bullish set of weekly US oil inventory figures.

As of 18:00 BST, West Texas Intermediate was higher by 0.51% to $49.26 a barrel while Brent crude was up by 0.82% higher at $50.13 on the ICE.

Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada, Qatar's Minister of Energy and Industry and president of the OPEC conference, told delegates that world demand remained “healthy” and the market now appeared to be rebalancing as the lower oil price led to a scaling back of production and exploration.

Following the ECB governing council´s meeting in Frankfurt president Mario Draghi unveiled further details relating to the central bank´s current stimulus measures and left the door open to further easing should it be necessary, albeit while noting that downside risks had receded somewhat thanks to monetary policy action.

Data released by Eurostat showed producer prices in the Eurozone unexpectedly fell in April, highlighting the central bank’s struggle to bring consumer price inflation back to its target of close to 2%.

Producer prices were down 0.3% in April from March, marking the biggest drop in over six years. Economists had been expecting prices to be up 0.1% after a 0.3% increase the month before. On the year, producer prices were down 4.4%.

Energy sector prices fell 1.1%, while non-durable consumer goods prices were 0.1% lower.

Excluding the decline in energy prices, producer prices were up 0.1% in April compared to a 0.1% drop in March.

In corporate news, Johnson Matthey rallied after the specialty chemicals firm posted a drop in full-year profit that met analysts’ expectations and expressed confidence over the current year.

Austrian steelmaker Voestalpine racked up healthy gains as its full-year net profit came in ahead of analysts’ expectations.