Europe close: Markets in the green as oil rises

European markets managed to finish higher on Tuesday, having traded broadly in line for much of the afternoon sessions.

The Stoxx 600 was up 1.13% to 346.29, while France’s CAC 40 added 1.27% to 4,479.39, Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 1.99% to 17,975.49, and Germany’s DAX was up 1.66% to 10,288.68.

In corporate news, German carmaker Porsche announced first quarter group profits of €661m, mainly as a result of the profits from its stake in Volkswagen AG.

Also in the automobile sector, Daimler AG announced it would reduce its headcount at three US plants and another in Mexico by 1,240.

The Stoxx 600 Oil and Gas sector index paced gains in oil, rising 2.61% as oil prices continued to float higher.

Both crude benchmarks were above the $50 mark as the continent clocked off, with Brent crude up 1.17% at $51.15 and West Texas Intermediate adding 0.92% to $50.15.

On Monday evening, Exxon Mobil reported a pipeline failure and spill at its Torrance refinery near Los Angeles. That came close on the heels of news of fresh attacks against the oil sector’s infrastructure in the Niger Delta.

Fed chair Janet Yellen's speech on Monday evening was also very much on investors’ minds.

Although the US central bank chief sounded an optimistic note on the outlook for America’s economy, her remarks also appeared to preclude an interest rate hike at the Federal Open Market Committee’s next policy meeting on 15 June, and quite plausibly also for July.

"Although Yellen said that she thinks the positive factors are outweighing the negative, she highlighted the downside risks to the economic outlook," analysts at Danske Bank said in a research note sent to clients.

Gross domestic product in the eurozone expanded at a 0.6% quarter-on-quarter clip over the first three months of the year, revised data showed, against a consensus of 0.5%.

German industrial production rose by 0.8% month-on-month in April, according to the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie - better than the 0.7% gain which economists had pencilled in.

Both factory and energy output increased by 1.1% month-on-month, with gains in the former led by a 2.2% jump in the production of capital goods.

The foreign trade deficit in France increased to -€5.2bn in April from -€4.2bn in March, against a consensus -€4.5bn.

In Spain, industrial production expanded at a seasonally adjusted 2.7% year-on-year pace in April, with the consensus forecast picking just 2.4%.