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European stocks slipped on Friday, with losses for travel and leisure stocks, even as economic data showed the single-currency area was seeing a growth pickup.
The Stoxx Europe 600
SXXP,
fell 0.2% to 462.96. Decliners included miners Rio Tinto
RIO,
RIO,
BHP Group
BHP,
BHP,
down 1% or more each, and Dutch Prosus
PRX,
which is the largest investor in Chinese tech giant Tencent
700,
Shares of Tencent fell 2.6% in Hong Kong, the first loss in three sessions and following a 10% rebound on Thursday. The tech company was reportedly ordered by the Chinese government on Friday to fix problems including pop-up ads and data storage. The country’s ongoing crackdown on specifically Internet and tech companies has rattled investors.
Tencent shares have lost nearly 18% for July, its worth monthly performance since October 2018, according to FactSet research. Prosus shares have dropped 9%, the worst monthly performance for the company that went public in September 2019.
Of the major regional indexes, the German DAX
DAX,
declined 0.6%, the French CAC 40
PX1,
was flat and the U.K. FTSE 100
UKX,
declined 0.8%.
On the economic front, data revealed there region pulling out of a double-dip recession in the second quarter with better-than-expected gross domestic product of 2% over the previous quarter. Still, Germany’s economic growth fell short of expectations.
Other data showed the annual rate of inflation in July in the eurozone exceeding the 2% target set by the European Central Bank for the first time in almost three years, with consumer prices rising 2.2% annually, the fastest rate of growth since October 2018, according to preliminary Eurostast data.
Elsewhere, data showed the eurozone jobless rate fell to 7.7% in June from a revised figure of 8.0% in May.
