European Shares Mostly Lower In Lackluster Trade

(RTTNews) - European stocks were mostly lower on Friday, with U.K. stocks bucking the weak trend as the pound faced pressure on weak GDP data.

Germany's consumer price inflation increased as initially estimated in August to the highest level in five months, the latest figures from the statistical office Destatis showed earlier today.

The consumer price index rose 2.2 percent year-on-year following a 2.0 percent rise in each of the previous two months. That was in line with the flash data published on August 29.

France's consumer price inflation eased slightly as initially estimated in August, INSEE reported. Consumer price inflation moderated to 0.9 percent in August from 1.0 percent in July, in line with the flash data published on August 29.

Elsewhere, the U.K. economy stagnated in July as expansions in services and construction sectors were offset by the decline in industrial production, the Office for National Statistics said.

Real gross domestic product showed no growth in July, as expected, after rising 0.4 percent in June. On a yearly basis, GDP was up 1.4 percent in July, slightly slower than the economists' forecast of 1.5 percent.

The pan European STOXX 600 was down 0.2 percent at 554.36 after rising 0.6 percent on Thursday.

The German DAX slipped 0.2 percent and France's CAC 40 dipped half a percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 0.3 percent ahead of Bank of England's monetary policy update next week.

Energy stocks slipped, with BP Plc and TotalEnergies falling around 1 percent, as crude prices extended steep overnight losses on rising worries about oversupply.

German software giant SAP was marginally lower after completing the acquisition of SmartRecruiters, a leading provider of enterprise-grade talent acquisition software.