European stocks close: stocks closed lower on the negative data from the Eurozone and on news from China

Stock indices closed lower on the negative data from the Eurozone and on news from China. China's Premier Li Keqiang said at the National People's Congress over the weekend that the government forecasted the Chinese economy to expand 6.5% - 7.0% this year. The economic growth in 2016 - 2020 is expected to be not less than 6.5%.

Meanwhile, the economic data from the Eurozone was negative. Market research group Sentix released its investor confidence index for the Eurozone on Monday. The index fell to 5.5 in March from 6.0 in February. It was the lowest level since April 2015.

A reading above 0.0 indicates optimism, below indicates pessimism.

"The Eurozone suffers from the loss of economic momentum of the global economy," managing director at Sentix, Patrick Hussy, said.

"A look abroad gives more reasons to cheer this time: values for Asia ex. Japan could recover the second month in a row. Moreover, the US economy exhibits resilience in March," he added.

Destatis released its factory orders data for Germany on Monday. German seasonal adjusted factory orders declined 0.1% in January, beating expectations for a 0.3% decrease, after a 0.2% fall in December. December's figure was revised up from a 0.7% drop.

The drop was driven by a decrease in domestic orders. Foreign orders increased by 1.0% in January, while domestic orders dropped by 1.6%.

Indexes on the close:

Name Price Change Change %

FTSE 100 6,182.4 -17.03 -0.27 %

DAX 9,778.93 -45.24 -0.46 %

CAC 40 4,442.29 -14.33 -0.32 %