European stocks opened broadly lower on Friday, as renewed concerns over tensions between Ukraine and Russia dampened market sentiment, while worries over the economic outlook in China also continued to weigh.
European stocks decline at open in cautious trade
During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 retreated 0.54%, France’s CAC 40 shed 0.48%, while Germany’s DAX 30 declined 0.67%.
Market sentiment was hit after Russia launched new military exercises near its border with Ukraine on Thursday, showing no sign of backing down on plans to annex Crimea.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said serious steps would be imposed by the U.S. and Europe if the referendum on Crimea joining Russia takes place on Sunday as planned.
Markets were also jittery after data on Thursday showed that Chinese industrial production rose 8.6% in the first two months of 2014, missing market expectations for an increase of 9.5%, while Chinese retail sales rose by a smaller-than-forecast 11.8% in the same period.
Financial stocks were mixed, as BNP Paribas added 0.16% and Societe Generale declined 0.67% in France, while Germany's Deutsche Bank inched up 0.06%.
Among peripheral lenders, Intesa Sanpaolo edged up 0.14% and Unicredit slipped 0.16% in Italy, while Spanish banks BBVA and Banco Santander added 0.12% and 0.14% respectively.
Elsewhere, UBS AG saw shares fall 0.16% following reports the Swiss bank raised total compensation for Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti by 21% to 10.73 million Swiss francs after the lender returned to profit last year.
In London, commodity-heavy FTSE 100 shed 0.26%, weighed by losses in mining stocks.
Shares in BHP Billiton dropped 0.81% and Glencore Xstrata tumbled 1.10%, while Antofagasta and Rio Tinto lost 1.62% and 1.76% respectively.
Meanwhile, financial stocks were mixed. The Royal Bank of Scotland slipped 0.27% and Lloyds Banking retreated 0.99%, while Barclays rose 0.35% and HSBC Holdings advanced 1.08%.
On the upside, energy giant BP climbed 0.53% after the company won the right to again compete for U.S. contracts and for new leases in the Gulf of Mexico, where its massive 2010 oil spill prompted regulators to bar it from new government business.
In the U.S., equity markets pointed to a higher open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.13% gain, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.18% rise, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.18% increase.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to release data on producer price inflation and preliminary data from the University of Michigan on consumer sentiment.
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