LONDON, Aug 23: European share prices edged lower on Friday, hit by profit taking despite US markets posting solid gains overnight.
The pan-euro zone Euro Stoxx 50 index fell 0.3 per cent to 2,864.1 points.
The British FTSE 100 index of leading shares slipped 0.1 per cent to 4,432.7 points, the French CAC 40 fell 0.4 per cent to 3,580.1 points and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.6 per cent to 3,884.6 points.
The euro traded for $0.9697.
Stocks failed to draw strength from solid gains in New York on Thursday, when the Dow Jones industrials index of 30 top stocks climbed 1.1 per cent to close above 9,000 points for the first time since July 9.
Dealers noted that while the technology-laden Nasdaq index had also risen, by 1.0 per cent, US markets were expected to reverse direction when trading commenced later Friday.
Meanwhile, shares in Asia were mixed, with Tokyo stocks climbing 0.5 per cent but the Hong Kong market down 1.7 per cent.
The market’s have had a pretty good run of late and some people seem to be locking in some profit, said Nomura strategist Anais Faraj.
Faraj said while the recent rebound is likely to have some more mileage left in it, the likelihood of a double-dip recession in the United States meant the markets would resume their downtrend later in the year.
The market got so short of stock that what we’ve been seeing is an unwinding of those positions.
It will go on for a while longer but I think people will start shorting the market once it has got up to levels at which they are more comfortable, Faraj told AFP.
Among the few leading European companies in the spotlight, shares in TotalFinaElf fell 0.3 per cent to 149.10 euros after the French oil giant said second quarter sales fell to $25.6 billion from 28.361 billion euros in the same period a year earlier.
Shares in Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) edged up 0.1 per cent to 39.57 euros after the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper said the German car maker may join the Euro Stoxx 50 index in next week’s reshuffle.
In Paris, stock in the construction materials group Lafarge was trading 0.7 per cent higher at 96.50 euros on similar hopes.
Shares in Fiat SpA rose 4.6 per cent to 12.10 euros on speculation the Italian company would sell its Fidis unit to banks and after affiliate Italenergia successfully completed a bond issue.
Meanwhile shares in French advertising group Publicis rose 2.2 per cent to 22.90 euros after it said late Thursday its planned merger with Bcom3 had been approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
—AFP