European stocks pull out of eight-month low

European stocks erased their decline, pulling out of an eight-month low, as a rally in commodity companies and carmakers offset a slump in German investor confidence.

Daimler led a gauge of European auto-industry stocks to the best performance among the industry groups on the benchmark index. Norsk Hydro and Rio Tinto Group added at least 2.7 per cent each.

Burberry Group dropped the most in a year after the UK's largest luxury-goods maker said it expects a difficult environment to weigh on profitability this year.

Michael Page International headed for the biggest plunge in almost six years after saying full-year profit will miss analysts’ estimates.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.2 per cent to 322.09 at 4:21 pm in London, reversing earlier losses of as much as 1.4 per cent.

The gauge has lost 4.2 per cent since October 6 as the International Monetary Fund cut its global-growth forecasts, German industrial output shrank the most since 2009 and investors weighed the impact of the Ebola epidemic.

German investor confidence decreased for a 10th month in October, a report showed today.

The ZEW Center for European Economic Research in Mannheim said its index of investor and analyst expectations declined to minus 3.6 this month from 6.9 in September. That’s the lowest level since November 2012.

Daimler gained 4.4 per cent to €59.17 after the world’s third-largest maker of luxury cars said its cash flow from industrial operations surged about 80 per cent in the third quarter. Iliad advanced 9.7 per cent to €171.30, its biggest gain in seven months.

Bloomberg