European Shares Mostly Lower On Worries Over Rates

(RTTNews) - European stocks fell on Friday and were set for a weekly drop on fears of elevated global interest rates.

U.K. markets were seeing modest gains, and the British pound extended a multi-week decline, a day after the Bank of England held rates steady for the first time since November 2021.

Eurozone government bond yields slipped after a survey showed that the euro zone economy will likely contract in the third quarter.

The flash UK flash composite purchasing managers' index fell to a 32-month low of 46.8 points in September while the latest readings on U.K. retail sales and consumer confidence painted a positive picture of the economy.

The pan European STOXX 600 was down 0.3 percent at 453.14 after falling 1.3 percent on Thursday.

The German DAX dropped 0.3 percent and France's CAC 40 shed 0.7 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 0.4 percent.

AstraZeneca rallied nearly 2 percent in London after announcing it found favorable results in a trail for a common type of breast cancer.

Infant and young children's retailer Mothercare soared 20 percent after saying it expects to complete a refinancing shortly.

Sanofi SA shares fell around 1 percent in Paris. Based on the evolution of foreign currencies, the company said its preliminary estimate of negative currency impact on third quarter sales is approximately between 7.5 percent and 8.5 percent and approximately between 8.5 percent and 9.5 percent on business EPS.

Shares of Tele2 AB and Telenor ASA were seeing modest gains after the telecom companies announced that they have together acquired licenses in the Swedish 900, 2100 and 2600 MHz spectrum auction through their joint network venture N4M for SEK 1.475 billion.

Adevinta soared 23 percent after the Norwegian online marketplace company confirmed it had received a takeover proposal from a consortium led by Permira and Blackstone.