European Shares Fall, Germany's DAX Down 4% For Week

(RTTNews) - European stocks fell sharply on Friday, extending steep weekly losses amid concerns that global equities are due for a significant correction.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks lost 1.2 percent, for a weekly loss of 3.6 percent.

The German DAX fell 1.5 percent, for a weekly loss of 4 percent.

The French CAC 40 fell 1.2 percent today. The UK's FTSE 100 slipped 1.3 percent and Switzerland's SMI lost 1.5 percent.

German banks were hit hard, with Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank AG dropping pre than 1 percent.

Infineon Technologies fell 1.6 percent, as investors turned cautious about technology stocks.

Symrise is losing 2.3 percent, despite a broker upgrade at Commerzbank.

Heavy construction firm Bauer, which reported annual results, lost 2.6 percent.

Orkla lost 7 percent in Oslo as the diversified foods giant's shares traded without rights to dividend.

Givaudan lost 2.5 percent in Zurich. The manufacturer of fragrance and flavor products reported a slide in quarterly sales.

Mediaset Espana lost 4 percent in Madrid, after a key shareholder sold part of its stake.

In economic news, U.S. producer prices recorded their largest increase in nine months in March as the cost of food and services rose.

The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand advanced by 0.5 percent in March after edging down by 0.1 percent in February. That was the largest increase since June last year. Economists had been expecting the index to tick up by only 0.1 percent.

Harmonized inflation in Germany slowed to its lowest level in nearly four years, final data from Destatis showed. The harmonized index of consumer prices rose 0.9 percent year-on-year in March, in line with flash estimate.

China's consumer price inflation accelerated in March on higher food prices, but remained within the government's full year 3.5 percent target, data from the National Bureau of Statistics revealed.

Consumer prices rose 2.4 percent from a year ago following a 2 percent rise in February, matching economists' expectations.