Europe close: Stocks slump again

European equities slumped further into the red on Friday, continuing a miserable week, with French and Italian stocks weaker again on worries over upcoming snap elections in France and the implications for government debt burdens.

"European stock indices continue their rout as political infighting among French parties becomes farcical," said IG chief market analyst Axel Rudolph.

"Fund outflows out of Europe into emerging markets and US mega stocks have contributed to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 hitting fresh highs this week while the French CAC 40 fell by around 5%."

The Stoxx 600 index slipped 0.97% to 511.05 after the pan-regional benchmark plunged 2% on Thursday, marking its biggest fall in almost a year.

France's CAC 40 plummeted 2.66% to 7,503.27, but Milan's FTSE Mib fared worst from among the major benchmarks, retreating by 2.81% to 32,665.21.

Worth noting, the former of the two indices ended the week beneath its 50-week moving average, although having fallen by just under 10% from its record high on 10 May it remained withing correction territory.

Not lost on investors, during the following week, the European Commission was expected to kick-start an Excessive Deficit Procedure against France.

European luxury stocks were under the cosh after a report that some labels were heavily discounting products in China to shift goods as local consumers cut back on spending.

Kering, Burberry, Hugo Boss, LVMH, Christian Dior, Moncler, Hermes and Richemont were all lower.

In other corporate news, British supermarket chain Tesco was up after it held profit guidance for the year after reporting a 4.6% rise in underlying UK sales for the first quarter.

Shares in UK fintech Wise fell again after the money-transfer company on Thursday forecast lower income growth this year.