European shares headed for their biggest weekly fall in four months, with financials coming under pressure on Friday ahead of the publication of a health check report on banks that is expected to show that five to 15 lenders have failed the tests.
Persistent concerns about debt crises in euro zone and the United States prompted investors to stay away from riskier assets, with warnings by credit rating agencies of a possible U.S. downgrade making investors nervous and cautious.
At 09:04 SA time, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.5 percent at 1,084.48 points after falling 0.9 percent in the previous session. The index is down 2.7 percent this week, the sharpest decline since mid-March.
“We have still got a cocktail of uncertainties for investors. The situation in Europe is still very difficult to forecast, we had another warning over the U.S. credit position and on the top of all that we have got the bank stress test results to come later today,” said Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Banks were among the biggest fallers, with the STOXX Europe 600 banking index dropping 0.9 percent. The index has fallen in 9 of 10 sessions and is down more than 4 percent this week. - Reuters