European close: Bourses bounce back

European bourses recovered from a shaky start to close with gains, helped by a strong performance on Wall Street after US consumer confidence figures came in ahead of expectations.

The latest survey on US consumer confidence came in ahead of expectations, easing fears over the state of the world's biggest economy. The reading on consumer confidence for August was 53.5, ahead of expectations of 51.0.

The Cac 30 in Paris rose by 3 points to 3,490, the German Dax 40 climbed 12 points to 5,925, but the Swiss market closed 24 lower at 6,180.

French supermarket group Carrefour moved back into the black with a first half profit of EUR82m compared with a loss of EUR58m. The firm maintained its earnings guidance for this year but the market was disappointed with first half earnings per share, which came in below market expectations.

ThyssenKrupp was knocked by a press report suggesting that it have its Hellenic Shipyards unit declare insolvency by the end of next week at the latest if interested party MAR Group does not come up with an offer. A further blow was dealt by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which cut its price target for the company from EUR30 to EUR28.

Drugs firm Bayer rose after its blood clot prevention drug Xarelto, developed in conjunction with US giant Johnson & Johnson, was given a favourable verdict in a study presented at the European Society of Cardiology conference in Stockholm.

Elsewhere in Germany, unemployment numbers fell by 17,000 in August the Federal Labour Office said. The rate of unemployment rate held steady at 7.6%.

For the eurozone as a while the unemployment rate remained unchanged for the fourth month in a row in July at a seasonally adjusted 10%. The lowest employment rates in the EU were recorded in Austria (3.8%) and the Netherlands (4.4% in June) while the highest rates were in Spain (20.3%), Latvia (20.1% in the first quarter of 2010) and Estonia (18.6% in the second quarter).