LONDON, May 11: European stock markets slid on Friday after an overnight slump on Wall Street that also sparked losses across Asian markets, dealers said.
US shares fell heavily on Thursday as weak sales figures at major retailers, including behemoth Wal-Mart, raised concerns about the strength consumer spending in the United States -- the world's biggest economy.
Wall Street was a fair bit weaker ... and we're just playing catch up,”said Robert Parkes, equity strategist at HSBC in London.
In late trade on Friday, the British capital's FTSE 100 index of leading shares dropped 0.34 per cent to 6,502.00 points.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 sank 0.96 per cent to 7,344.16 points and the Paris CAC 40 lost 0.73 per cent to 5,969.11 in early afternoon deals.
In Europe on Friday, investors took the opportunity to bank profits on selected stocks which had been boosted by recent takeover speculation.
Reuters fell 1.58 per cent to 592 pence in London in the absence of news over a mooted takeover from Canadian publisher Thomson Corp. which could value the media giant at 8.77 billion pounds (12.86 billion euros, 17.49 billion dollars).
Property group Hammerson saw its shares slide 1.02 per cent to 1,656 pence as investors cashed in some of Thursday's gains that appeared on talk that US private equity group KKR was mulling an approach, dealers said.
In Frankfurt, Deutsche Telekom shares fell 0.55 per cent to 12.58 euros as its employees began an open-ended strike in protest at restructuring measures, the ver.di trade union said.
In Paris, Lagardere slipped 0.10 per cent to 57.85 euros after the French media and technology group posted first-quarter sales largely in line with market expectations.—AFP
