European stocks close: stocks closed lower on a drop in oil prices and on negative news from China

Stock indices closed lower on a drop in oil prices and on negative news from China. The Chinese stock market dropped again. The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics released its consumer and producer price inflation data for China on Saturday. The Chinese consumer price index (CPI) rose at annual rate of 1.6% in December, in line with expectations, after a 1.5% gain in November.

The Chinese producer price index (PPI) dropped 5.9% in December, missing expectations for a 5.8% fall, after a 5.9% decline in November.

Meanwhile, the economic data from Eurozone was weak. Market research group Sentix released its investor confidence index for the Eurozone on Monday. The index slid to 9.6 in January from 15.7 in December.

A reading above 0.0 indicates optimism, below indicates pessimism.

"The shakeup at Chinese stock exchanges is perceived more than a "technical issue" by investors. Economic ex-pectations for Asia ex. Japan show the strongest nosedive ever recorded. Yet, economic expectations for the US economy are negative, the first time since October 2012," Sentix said in its statement.

German investor confidence index dropped to 18.1 in January from 22.7 in December.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released its leading indicators on Tuesday. The composite leading indicator remained unchanged at 99.8 in November.

It signalled stable growth momentum in Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and in the Eurozone as a whole.

The growth momentum firmed in France and India.

The index for Russia pointed to a loss in growth momentum.

The index for Brazil and China showed tentative signs of stabilisation.

The index for the U.S. and the U.K. pointed to an easing in growth.

Indexes on the close:

Name Price Change Change %

FTSE 100 5,871.83 -40.61 -0.69 %

DAX 9,825.07 -24.27 -0.25 %

CAC 40 4,312.74 -21.02 -0.49 %