Europe shares close mixed; Shell falls 4%

European equities closed mixed on Thursday, with a sharp decline in Shell (London Stock Exchange: RDSA-GB) shares hitting the U.K.'s FTSE 100 (FTSE International: .FTSE) index.

The FTSE 100 closed provisionally down 0.2 percent, after the oil supermajor announced a spending cut of $15 billion over the next three years. Shell shares closed down around 4.3 percent.

Read More Shell announced a cut in spending of $15 billion Most other major bourses across Europe closed in positive territory, with the French CAC 40 (Euronext Paris: .FCHI) and the German DAX (^GDAXI) ending unofficially up 0.4 percent and 0.2 percent respectively. The Athens Composite closed over 3 percent higher, with Greek banking stocks regaining some losses after falling more than 25 percent on Wednesday. This comes as investors' grow increasingly nervous about the new left-wing government's plans for economy, and the potential for trouble with Greece' international bailout supervisors.

On the data front, the German jobless rate for January came in at 6.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis. This was lower than December's number of 6.6 percent.

In other stocks news, shares of Diageo (London Stock Exchange: DGE-GB) closed around 3 percent higher, despite the drinks manufacturer posting lower-than-expected sales on Thursday.

Read More Diageo slumps in EM, but growth will return: CEO Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank (XETRA:DBK-DE) shares closed around 2.6 percent higher after posting a Read More surprise profit in fourth quarter .

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