European markets were in negative territory on Friday, as investors shunned risky assets ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting next week. Further, apprehensions remained, as China is due to release its industrial production and retail sales for August on Sunday.
German consumer price inflation remained stable as initially estimated in August, final data from Destatis showed. The consumer price index rose 0.2% year-on-year, the same as in July. The rate matched the preliminary estimate published on August 28, RTT reported.
UK construction output decreased unexpectedly in July after recovering in the previous month, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks dropped 0.73%, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major UK companies, slid 0.67%.
The German DAX, the French CAC 40 and Switzerland’s SMI were moderately lower, while the FTSE 100 index of the UK slipped 0.2%. In Frankfurt, RWE and E.ON fell 3.3% and 3.1%, respectively.
K+S dropped 2.4% while Infineon Technologies lost around 2%. Deutsche Telekom retreated 1.5%. Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank dropped 1.7% and 1.3%, respectively. BMW and Daimler lost 1.3% and 1.2%, respectively, while Volkswagen was moderately lower.
In Paris, telecom firm Orange fell 2.5%. Builder Bouygues lost 2.4% and retailer Carrefour dropped 2.1%. Societe Generale, Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas were moderately lower. Bucking the trend, Total gained more than 1%.
In London, Associated British Foods fell 2.7%. Inmarsat dropped 1.7% and St. James’s Place fell 1.6%.
Miners rose on the day. Anglo American and Rio Tinto gained about 3% each, while BHP Billiton rose 2.5%.
Swedish telecommunications firm TeliaSonera and Norwegian telecom company Telenor announced the withdrawal of the proposed merger of their Danish operations. Both companies were in the red, in Stockholm and Copenhagen, respectively.
Telecom Italia fell more than 2% in Milan.
The Asian stocks ended on a lackluster note, as lingering uncertainty in the run-up to the Federal Reserve’s meeting next week tempered positive sentiment generating from overnight gains on Wall Street, recovery in global oil prices and further signs of stability in Chinese stock markets.
In the US, futures point to a lower open on Wall Street. In the previous session, Dow and the S&P 500 rose about half a percent each, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.8%.
Crude for October delivery fell $1.23 to $44.69 per barrel, while December gold dropped $3.8 to $1105.5 a troy ounce.
