European stocks close: stocks closed lower ahead of the release of the Fed's monetary policy meeting results

Stock indices traded lower ahead of the release of the Fed's monetary policy meeting results later in the day. Analysts expect the Fed to keep its monetary policy unchanged.

The European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Benoît Cœuré said on Wednesday that Eurozone's countries should use fiscal space to boost the economic growth in the Eurozone.

"Using fiscal space would speed up the euro area's return to growth and support the ECB's objective of medium-term price stability. But, in many countries, such fiscal space simply does not exist, because rules have not been enforced in the past," he said.

Meanwhile, the economic data from the Eurozone was better than expected. Market research group GfK released its consumer confidence index for Germany on Wednesday. German Gfk consumer confidence index remained unchanged at 9.4 in February, beating expectations for a drop to 9.3.

"The consumer climate has therefore been able to withstand the recent growth in risks it is facing. However, in the next few months the escalating terror threat and the rising fears among certain groups of the population that Germany could eventually become overstretched by the persistently high influx of refugees and asylum seekers may cause consumer confidence to wane in the long term. In turn, this would have a lasting impact on the consumer climate," Gfk noted.

French statistical office INSEE released its consumer confidence index for France on Wednesday. French consumer confidence index rose to 97 in January from 96 in December. Analysts had expected the index to remain unchanged at 96.

The British Bankers' Association (BBA) released the number of mortgage approvals in the U.K. on Wednesday. The number of mortgage approvals decreased to 43,975 in December from 44,533 in November, missing expectations for a rise to 45,500. November's figure was revised up from 45,437.

"Last year was a strong year for household borrowing. There was a 6% rise in mortgage borrowing compared to 2014 and consumer credit expanded at more than 5% annually within an overall unsecured market which is growing at nearly 10% annually," the chief economist at the BBA, Richard Woolhouse, said.

The Nationwide Building Society released its house prices data for the U.K. on Wednesday. UK house prices were up 0.3% in January, missing expectations for a 0.6% rise, after a 0.8% increase in December.

On a yearly basis, house prices fell to 4.4% in January from 4.5% in December. Analysts had expected house prices to rise by 4.7%.

"As we look ahead, the risks are skewed towards a modest acceleration in house price growth, at least at the national level, Robert Gardner, said.

Indexes on the close:

Name Price Change Change %

FTSE 100 5,990.37 +78.91 +1.33 %

DAX 9,880.82 +58.07 +0.59 %

CAC 40 4,380.36 +23.55 +0.54 %