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London - European shares fell on Thursday, with phone stocks leading the way after a capital raising move at Altice to fund a US acquisition and technology stocks pressured by concerns over chip orders from Apple .
European shares changed direction as Wall Street opened lower, having earlier been supported by expectations China may do more to bolster its economy following a further decline in factory activity.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 0.41% while the euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index dropped 1%.
Significant impact
Concerns over the repercussions of an economic slowdown in China have helped to drive the pan-European index down almost 10% in the past three months, its worst quarterly drop in four years.
"Emerging markets are much more important for the global economy than they were during (their) previous crisis in 1997-98. It will be harder now to prevent the crisis from having a significant impact on Europe and the US," broker Equita said.
"Events in the last few weeks have convinced us stock markets firmly remain in a negative phase," it added.
Shares in Altice fell 9.3% as the telecoms group launched a tougher-than-expected debt and equity capital raising to fund its takeover of Cablevision.
Elsewhere in the sector Deutsche Telekom lost 5.2% and Telecom Italia declined 4.4%. According to analysts at Market Insight, concerns over the growing debt pile at Altice could weaken the M&A trend in the telecoms sector.
Technology shares were the second biggest sectoral faller with a 1.4% slide. ASML and Dialog led the decline after a report in technology website DigiTimes said iPhone chipmakers were concerned Apple would cut its chip orders for the fourth quarter.
Oil companies were the biggest gainer, advancing 1.3% as the price of crude rose.
Emissions tests
Glencore, whose shares have been hit this week by questions over its debt, resumed its slide with an 0.6% fall despite its assurances that debt-cutting plans remain on track.
The stock had rallied earlier on upbeat broker notes from Citigroup and Barclays and traders blamed the return of hedge funds and short-sellers for the renewed losses.
Volkswagen shares fell 1.3%, giving up initial gains, as the company said it would take longer than expected to investigate its rigging of vehicle emissions tests, raising the prospect of months of uncertainty.
Milan-listed shares in Fiat Chrysler rose 2.2% as brokers expressed confidence over a planned stock market listing of the car maker's luxury sports Ferrari brand.
