By Shashwat Chauhan, Jesus Calero and Shristi Achar A
(Reuters) -European shares closed lower on Friday, pressured by declines in technology and banking stocks, while Danish brewer Carlsberg (CSE:) Group delivered the day’s worst performance after British soft drink maker Britvic rejected its revised takeover proposal.
The European index ended 0.7% lower, with the technology sub-index losing around 1.3% and eurozone banks down 1.7%.
Carlsberg Group fell 9.3% after Britvic rejected its $3.93 billion takeover bid, saying the proposal “significantly undervalued” the group and its prospects. Britvic rose 7.7%.
Still, the European benchmark posted a weekly gain of 0.8% as the market focused on Swiss and British central bank decisions this week, recovering from last week’s decline after French President Emmanuel Macron called early parliamentary elections Unsubscribed.
“We are recovering cautiously, but volatility related to the French elections will persist until the first election date,” said Axel Rudolph, senior market analyst at IG Group.
The French benchmark recorded a gain of 1.7% this week.
On the data front, France’s services sector contracted more than expected in June, while a broader eurozone analysis showed business growth in the bloc slowed sharply this month as demand fell for the first time since February.
“It is possible that French consumers will at least be happier with the election outcome and budget promises than businesses, and will continue to spend,” Citigroup strategists said in a note.
“However, if growth slows significantly, the chances of more and faster rate cuts by the ECB would increase.”
A rebound in business activity in Germany, the bloc’s largest economy, also slowed in June, data showed.
Government bond yields across the continent fell after the figures were released. [GVD/EUR]
Britain’s blue-chip fell 0.4% after positive domestic retail sales data raised concerns that interest rates would remain high for longer.
Global investors remained risk averse as US stocks traded in the red, while a rally in chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ:) appeared to fade. [.N]
Among other stocks, Denmark’s Zealand Pharma (NASDAQ:) rose nearly 19% after an early-stage study found that a high dose of the drug helped reduce weight by an average of 8.6% after 16 weekly doses.
British discount chain B&M fell 1.7% after Morgan Stanley lowered its rating from ‘equal-weight’ to ‘underweight’.
Shares in ABB (ST:) fell 2.8% after Deutsche Bank downgraded the Swiss engineering group to “sell”.
