September 23, 2006	Saturday	Sha'aban 29, 1427

LONDON, Sept 22: European stock markets fell heavily on Friday in line with Wall Street and the Tokyo market on signals of a possible global economic slowdown, dealers said.

The fall was triggered by a weak industrial activity survey in the United States even though the price of oil, which firmed on Friday, has eased significantly recently.

In Paris, the CAC 40 index of leading French shares plunged 1.05 per cent to 5,153.62 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 slid 1.09 per cent to 5,897.04 and London's FTSE 100 fell 0.97 per cent to 5,839.40 points.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares declined 0.91 per cent to 3,821.99 points. The euro stood at 1.2808 dollars.

“Weak economic data out of the United States is affecting trade today”, said Barclays Capital analyst Henk Potts.

Markets were jolted by the survey from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve that stoked fears that US economic activity was slowing down.

The Philly Fed index was a negative 0.4 points in August from 18.5 in July, compared with expectations of a reading of 14.4 points.

The index, covering the key mid-Atlantic region, is often seen as proxy for the US industrial economy.

Japanese share prices sank to a six-week low Friday on fears that a global economic slowdown could undercut company profits, dealers said.

In Paris on Friday, heavy fallers included engineering group Alstom and information services group Capgemini, whose share prices fell by 2.62 per cent and 1.76 per cent respectively, to 72.6 euros and 42.46 euros.

And dollar exporters like L'Oreal and DaimlerChrysler were also dragged lower by the weak US numbers.

French cosmetics giant L'Oreal shed 1.25 per cent to 79.3 euros in Paris, while German carmaker DaimlerChrysler lost 1.22 per cent to 39.0 euros in Frankfurt.

In London, SABMiller shares fell 2.54 per cent to 999 pence after overnight data from AC Nielsen showed that the Britain-based brewer has lost market share in the US.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite shed 0.67 per cent to 2,237.75 points while the broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index lost 0.54 per cent to 1,318.03 points.—AFP