European equities fell for a fourth straight session on Monday, led by miners, and were poised for further weakness as a result of a growing batch of gloomy economic and corporate data.
Basic resources and tech shares led fallers as disappointing Chinese inflation and weak numbers from Japan's services and manufacturing sectors came hard on the heels of a worse-than-expected US jobs report on Friday.
“Some investors (had been) expecting the Chinese would continue to grow and manage their slowdown, which would mean that European exports would still go well,” the head of institutional sales at a leading investment bank in London said.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares provisionally closed down 0.3 percent at 1,030.83 points. - Reuters