European bourses finished lower on Friday after news that multiple British banks have stopped trading Qatari riyals for retail customers as the diplomatic crisis in Qatar escalates.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was lower by 0.34 percent. Markets were confident about rate hikes in the coming months and digested euro zone inflation data showing the slowdown was lesser than what was expected. Most of the sectors and major bourses were positive.
One of the strongest performers in Europe on Friday was tech stocks, following an underwhelming performance on Wall Street in the previous session. Delivery Hero, an only takeaway delivery firm from Germany, made its debut on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Friday and it was seen as a success. Its shares moved 8 percent higher.
Chemicals were on the lead of losses on Friday, down over 1 percent, on earnings news. Bayer fell to the bottom of the index after it lowered its outlook for 2017. Bayer said it would have to adjust its earnings as a result of the negative revenue outlook stemming from its Brazilian crop science business.
Greene King, a British pub retailer, slipped to the bottom of the benchmark on Friday. Both JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley cut its target price for the firm, with JPMorgan also downgrading its stock rating from overweight to neutral.
Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, caught many investors by surprise on Wednesday as he said the U.K.’s central bank could be required to lift interest rates as the economy is coming close to running at full capacity.