AlHijjah 18, 1436, October 02, 2015, SPA -- European shares closed higher on Friday, as firmer utility stocks and gains on the Lisbon bourse before weekend elections in Portugal propped up markets in spite of weak U.S. jobs data, Reuters reported. However, Volkswagen fell 4.3 percent to around its lowest level in four years as a French investigation added to pressure from a scandal over the carmaker's diesel emissions. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index closed up 0.5 percent, while the euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index finished 0.6 percent higher. The FTSEurofirst had been up by about 1.5 percent before the U.S. data was released but then lost some of that ground after the figures came out.
