By Sarah Turner
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares edged lower in early trading on Friday, after gaining for the last nine sessions. Mineral extractors weakened, with BHP Billiton (UK:BLT 1,572, +10.50, +0.67%) (BHP 61.37, +1.95, +3.28%) down 1.1% and Vedanta Resources (UK:VED 1,722, +15.00, +0.88%) down 1.6%, and Merck (DE:MRK 64.60, -8.73, -11.91%) shares dropped 12.4%. Still, there were gains for Vodafone Group (UK:VOD 120.45, +3.70, +3.17%) (VOD 19.47, +0.42, +2.20%) , up 2.4%, and Danone (FR:BN 36.97, -0.72, -1.91%) , up 0.6%, after both firms updated investors. The U.K. FTSE 100 index declined 0.3% to 4,546.44, the German DAX index declined 0.4% to 5,226.28 and the French CAC-40 index fell 0.6% to 3,354.71. (Updates to add Merck price.) |
