August 2, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-us-Sani 3, 1424

LONDON, Aug 1: European shares fell sharply on Friday after a dismal US June labour market report prompted a sell-off on Wall Street, dealers said.

In London, the FTSE 100 index of leading shares finished on a loss of 1.41 per cent at 4,098.4 points, while the Paris CAC 40 fell 1.27 per cent to 3,169.63 points.

Frankfurt’s DAX was down 1.40 per cent 3,438.89 points and across the euro zone the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 shed 1.59 per cent to 2,479.7 points.

As Frankfurt closed, the Dow Jones industrials had slipped 0.60 per cent at 9,177.99 points in New York while the Nasdaq was off 0.66 per cent at 1,723.63 points.

London shares were dragged down by a five-per cent dip in Lloyds TSB shares to 459 pence after the banking group announced half-yearly results.

Although pre-tax profits were up five per cent, this was eclipsed by news the bank is to buy the remaining 70 per cent of credit card and personal loan firm Goldfish from partner Centrica.

In Paris, shares in the theme park Euro Disney plunged 11.48 per cent to 0.54 euros after the company announced late Thursday that it might not be able to respect debt-payment schedules.

Tech shares fared better on hopes that business investment would begin to pick up given the promising US second-quarter growth figure of 2.4 per cent.

Heading the list, Cap Gemini Ernst and Young advanced 2.87 per cent to 36.58 euros.

In Amsterdam the AEX index lost 0.9 per cent to 314.74 points, the Swiss SMI was down 0.68 per cent at 5,044.8 points, in Milan the Mib 30 shed 0.72 per cent to 25,296 points, in Madrid the Ibex-35 was off 0.94 per cent at 6,995.4 points and in Brussels the Bel-20 closed 0.15-per cent lower at 2,020.13 points.—AFP