Europe close: Oil and commodities buoy stocks

European markets came off their lows of the session, with gains in the price of oil and other commodities helping to offset caution on global growth prospects following a spate of weaker than expected data out of China over the weekend.

To take note of, trading volumes were light as a result of public holidays in Germany and France.

As of the close of trading, the benchmark DJ Stoxx 600 was essentially unchanged, having risen by 0.01% to reach 334.73, while the Cac-40 was off by 0.18% or 7.71 points to 4,312.28 alongside a gain of 0.04% or 7.57 points to 17,737.02 for the FTSE Mibtel.

The Frankfurt Stock Exchange was closed for trading on Monday in observance of a bank holiday.

Crude oil futures were higher as traders focused on the impact of disruptions in supplies from the Niger Delta as a result of attacks by militants.

Goldman Sachs also weighed in on recent events on Sunday, telling clients that such disruptions had led to a "sudden halt" in excess supplies.

However, the broker expected a glut of oil to reappear at the start of 2017.

In parallel, analysts at Morgan Stanley said: "Bullish tail risks are occurring and yet oil’s price response has been relatively muted over the past 1-2 months [...] The muted price action suggests that 1) the inventory buffer may be preventing full price recovery and 2) the market sustainability of outages and possible producer response."

Acting as a backdrop, figures published on 14 May revealed that Chinese industrial production, retail sales and fixed asset investment all slowed down in April from March.

The rate of growth for industrial production slowed from 6.8% year-on-year clip in March to a 6% year-on-year pace in April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

That was less than the 6.5% rise which economists had forecast.

Chinese retail sales expanded by 10.1%, undershooting expectations for a gain of 10.5%, while fixed asset investment was up by 10.5% over the year to April, missing economists’ projections for growth of 11%.

Following the data, and also weak headline numbers on Chinese lending the previous day, the Peoples Bank of China issued a statement explaining that said lending and credit figures had been distorted by a programme to allow local governments to swap more expensive debt for municipal bonds.

“Overall, although the data for April has been mixed, we think there are more positives than negatives. […] But with the impact of earlier policy loosening yet to be fully felt, we think there is enough stimulus already in the pipeline to support a recovery until the end of the year,” Capital Economics said in a research note sent to clients on Monday morning.

Shares in Telecom Italia were moving higher despite the telecommunications group having reported a 7.5% drop in group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to reach €1.79bn, after a 5.6% fall in sales to €4.18bn.

French pharma giant Sanofi was planning to move ahead with the replacement of US outfit Medivation’s board of directors after the oncology treatment maker refused to engage in talks over a proposed $9.3bn buy-out, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Standard&Poor’s downgraded the long-term credit ratings of EdF from A+ to A.

Euro/dollar was edging higher by 0.18% to 1.13129 and front month Brent crude futures were gaining 2.587% to reach $49.10 per barrel on the ICE.

Three-month LME-traded copper futures ended the day up by 0.7% to $4,651.00 per metric tonne.