LONDON, Jan 9: European shares slid on Wednesday, with London hit by a gloomy update from retail darling Marks & Spencer, and after heavy overnight US losses sparked by fresh housing strains, dealers said.

In recent days and weeks, global equities have been rocked by concern over a potential US recession, arising from the country’s slumping housing sector, could slam the brakes on world economic growth.

The risk of a recession is more pressing but at the same time, we are not sure yet if it will actually happen. On Wednesday in Europe, London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares slid 1.38 per cent to 6,269.10 points, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 lost 0.80 per cent to 7,785.27 points and the Paris CAC 40 dropped 1.17 per cent to stand at 5,431.12.

In Amsterdam shares sank by 1.52 per cent, Stockholm shed 1.78 per cent and Zurich erased 1.14 per cent in value.

New York traders’ screens turned red on Tuesday amid negative housing news and as troubled US mortgage giant Countrywide Financial was forced to deny rumours it was on the verge of filing for bankruptcy.

In London, the retail sector took a heavy knock from a poor trading update from Marks & Spencer. M&S shares dived by 18.8 per cent to 409 pence after the group revealed flagging sales in the run-up to Christmas and issued a gloomy outlook for 2008.

—AFP