European stocks close: stocks closed lower as the ECB’S interest rate decision continued to weigh on markets

Stock indices closed lower as the European Central Bank's (ECB) interest rate decision continued to weigh on markets. Market participants were disappointed because they hoped for more stimulus measures by the ECB. The ECB kept its interest rate unchanged at 0.05% on Thursday, but lowered its deposit rate to -0.3% from -0.2%. The asset-buying programme will be extended until the end of March 2017. The volume of the monthly purchases remained unchanged.

Meanwhile, the economic data from Germany was positive. Destatis released its factory orders data for Germany on Friday. German seasonal adjusted factory orders climbed 1.8% in October, exceeding expectations for a 1.2% increase, after a 0.7% fall in September. September's figure was revised up from a 1.7% drop.

The rise was driven by an increase in foreign and domestic orders. Foreign orders increased by 1.8% in October, while domestic orders rose by 1.7%.

New orders from the Eurozone jumped 2.7% in October, while orders from other countries climbed 1.4%.

Orders of the intermediate goods increased by 0.1% in October, capital goods orders were up 2.7%, while consumer goods orders soared 3.8%.

Indexes on the close:

Name Price Change Change %

FTSE 100 6,238.29 -36.71 -0.59 %

DAX 10,752.1 -37.14 -0.34 %

CAC 40 4,714.79 -15.42 -0.33 %