Traders are seen at their desks in front of the DAX board at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. DAX 30 inched lower 0.13% to 9,116.32 points yesterday.

AFP/London


European equities failed to get a boost yesterday from solid economic data out of the eurozone after lacklustre US jobs data, traders said.
Markets held their fire ahead of the European Central Bank’s monetary policy decision due today and took stock of slower than expected jobs growth in the US private sector.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index ended the day up just 0.13% at 6,457.89 points.
Frankfurt’s DAX 30 inched lower 0.13% to 9,116.32 points and the CAC 40 in Paris was flat at 4,117.79 points.
The European single currency gained against the dollar.
Eurozone private sector business activity in January showed the best performance since June 2011, fresh evidence that a modest recovery is gaining traction, a key survey showed yesterday.
Markit Economics said its Eurozone Composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for January rose to 52.9 points from 52.1 in December, the seventh monthly rise in a row.
Markit said the upturn was driven by the manufacturing sector while services remained subdued in comparison, at 51.6 points in January compared with 51 in December.
“Services PMIs in Spain, Italy and France were all better than expected, although the two latter remained below the key 50 level that separates growth from contraction,” said Craig Erlam, analyst at Alpari traders.
“However, the drop in the German services PMI clearly weighed on the overall eurozone figure.”
This contrasted with US data showing 175,000 new private-sector jobs in January, slightly below analysts’ consensus estimate of 178,000.
As usual, most of the jobs – 160,000 – were added in the country’s massive services sector. The goods-producing sector only gained 16,000 jobs, with nearly half of that in the construction industry.
US stocks yesterday fell after the report with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.11% to 15,428.77, in midday trading.
The broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.44% at 1,747.46, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.74% to 4,001.72 points.
Separate figures from the Eurostat statistics agency showed that eurozone retail sales fell 1.6% in December compared with November when they had risen 0.9%.
In foreign exchange, the euro steadied to $1.3517 from $1.3515 late in New York on Tuesday. The single currency rose to 82.93 British pence from 82.77 pence.  
The price of gold increased to $1,257 an ounce from $1,250.25 an ounce Tuesday on the London Bullion Market.
However the dollar slipped against the yen as investors remain on edge about the global economy, following a series of disappointing economic data and the US Federal Reserve’s recent decision to reduce its stimulus programme.
Markets around the world were recently sent into a tailspin following worse than expected manufacturing activity data from China and the US, suggesting softness in the global economy.