By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets traded broadly
lower on Friday, spurred by geopolitical concerns after a Malaysia
Airlines jet was shot down over Ukraine and Israel sent ground
troops into Gaza.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index lost 0.2% to 338.92, adding to a 0.9%
decline from Thursday. On the week, the benchmark was on track for
a 0.6% advance.
Russia's MICEX index dropped 2% to 1,412.11, on track for a
fifth straight day in the red. Read: Russian stocks slide after
MH17 crash
The losses came after a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet en route
to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam was downed over eastern Ukraine by a
surface-to-air missile on Thursday, killing all everyone on board.
Both Ukraine and Russia deny responsibility and blame each other
for the tragedy.
U.S. intelligence agencies were divided over whether the missile
was launched by the Russian military or the militants, but an
official said "all roads lead to the Russians to some degree."
Pro-Russian separatists claimed on Thursday they had retrieved
the black box from the crash site and said evidence of the incident
would be sent to Moscow for examination. On Friday, an
international emergency crew at the site recovered a second flight
recorder from the plane, according to media reports.
"It's going to be a nervous time ahead while we await further
developments, but this feels like a big geopolitical blow for
financial markets," analysts at Deutsche Bank said in a note.
Also on Thursday, after the European markets closed, Israeli
military forces launched a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip aimed
at crushing Hamas militants.
Europe movers
The geopolitical jitters weighed on the majority of Europe's
country-specific indexes. Germany's DAX 30 index gave up 0.6% to
9,696.06, although France's CAC 40 index was slightly higher at
4,317.85. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index lost 0.1% to 6,734.01.
Banks were in focus in London after the U.K. antitrust authority
said there should be an in-depth investigations into the
competition in the country's banking market. The U.K retail and
business banking is dominated by four banks: Lloyds Banking Group
PLC (LYG), down 0.3%, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS), off
1.6%, HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBC) , flat, and Barclays PLC (BCS), 0.2%
higher.
Elsewhere, Volvo AB shares slumped 5.4% after the Swedish truck
maker said European demand isn't recovering as fast as expected and
that order intake dropped 6% in the second quarter.
Most airline sharesx declined in the wake of the MH17 crash,
with Air France-KLM SA down 1.2%, Deutsche Lufthansa AG 1.3% lower
and easyJet PLC off 0.2%.
Daimler AG gave up 2.3% after Credit Suisse downgraded the
German car maker to neutral from outperform.
Shares of LM Ericsson Telefon AB jumped 8.2% after the
mobile-network company reported second-quarter earnings that beat
expectations.
Shares of Shire PLC climbed 3.2% after U.S. drug maker AbbVie
Inc. (ABBV) confirmed it will buy the Irish pharmaceutical firm in
a deal valued at $54 billion.
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