European markets closed lower Thursday despite a slowdown in the spread of the coronavirus in mainland China, as disappointing earnings weighed on investor sentiment.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed down 0.86% to 430.19, with insurance stocks shedding 1.7% to lead losses while auto shares were among the only gainers, climbing 0.7%.

European markets are bucking the trend seen from their Asian counterparts, where stocks advanced Thursday on hopes that the coronavirus outbreak could be slowing amid a decline in the number of new cases of the virus, and from extra stimulus measures from China.

On Wall Street, market sentiment was broadly negative, with all the major indexes falling around 1%.

Source: CNBC