European shares fall in line with global sell-off, 3rd weekly decline

European shares fell on Friday (21), marking their third straight week of losses, as nervousness over the tightening of monetary policy by major central banks this year and weak economic data sending global stocks sharply down.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed down 1.84% at 474.44 points, accumulating losses of 1.4% for the week.

Mining stocks were the worst performers of the day, falling 3.3%.

Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto fell 2.2%, the biggest weight in the sector, after Serbia revoked its lithium exploration license over environmental concerns, undermining the group’s ambition to become Europe’s biggest supplier of the metal.

Investors are awaiting the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting next week for details on how the US central bank intends to deal with high inflation.

“There’s been a lot of speculation — four, five, six rate hikes this year, a 50 basis point hike in March — which has fueled market anxiety,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA.

• In London, the Financial Times index dropped 1.20%, to 7,494.13 points;
• In Frankfurt, the DAX index fell 1.94% to 15,603.88 points;
• In Paris, the CAC-40 index lost 1.75%, to 7,068.59 points;
• In Milan, the Ftse/Mib index had a devaluation of 1.84%, to 27,061.40 points;
• In Madrid, the Ibex-35 index registered a drop of 1.36%, to 8,694.70 points;
• In Lisbon, the PSI20 index depreciated by 1.43%, to 5,582.76 points