Europe open: Shares lower ahead of ECB, BoE meetings

European shares opened lower on Thursday after a plunge in shares of Facebook owner Meta on a weaker-than-expected forecast and ahead of UK and European Central Bank meetings.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.34% in early deals with most major regional bourses following suit. Britain’s FTSE 100 outperformed with a 0.13% rise. US futures indicated a sharp fall for stocks on the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

In London, the Bank of England was expected to lift its key rate 25 basis points to 0.5% - the threshold at which it has said previously it would begin to unwind its £895bn quantitative easing programme.

Meanwhile the ECB was not expected to announce any policy changes, but investors will be looking for any sign that bank president Christine Lagarde will stop stimulus measures in response to the inflation surge that many central bankers dismissed as temporary.

On the equity news front, shares in UK telecoms and broadcasting company BT Group fell as it said it was in talks with Discovery of the US about forming a sport broadcasting joint venture and reported a 3% drop in profit for the first nine months of the year.

Shares in UK government contractor Compass surged as it reported revenue growth of 38.6% in the first quarter, with sales reaching 97% of their pre-Covid levels.

Shell shares edged higher after the energy giant reported soaring fourth-quarter profit on the back of surging oil and gas prices.

Nordea shares fell, despite the Nordic region's biggest lender posting better-than-expected fourth quarter profit and lifting its return-on-equity target to more than 13%.

Shares in Swedish ball bearing maker SKF fell more than 6% as it reported higher-than-expected fourth-quarter net profit but cautioned that it expects supply-chain constraints and higher costs to continue.