Europe open: Stocks in the red following sell-off in Asia

European stocks began Friday on the back foot, taking a lead from the morning's declines in Asia and following a slightly negative finish in the US overnight ahead of the important nonfarm payroll report.

Chinese stocks were on the up after a surprise jump in manufacturing data for the first time in eight months, though weak Japanese industrial numbers put a dampener on much of this sentiment.

Japanese equities tumbled after the Tankan Survey showed business sentiment among the nation's big manufacturers fell to the lowest in nearly three years in the first quarter. The headline index stood at +6 in March, half the level seen three months ago and worse than a median market forecast of +8.

Much of traders' attention on Friday is expected to be on the afternoon’s US jobs report for March, which following a reasonably solid ADP number earlier this week is forecast to see a slight fall to 206,000, from February’s 242,000.

The trading session before the NFP data may remain quiet as traders hold back from playing the wrong hand.

On the upside in Europe, a raft of final revisions to the manufacturing data from around the continent was mostly positive.

Nevertheless, just after 0900 BST the Stoxx 600 was down 1.43%, with individual country benchmarks all in the red too.

Germany's Dax was down 1.47%, France's CAC 40 down 1.55%, Spain's IBEX down 1.06% and Italy's MIB 0.79% lower.

For the Eurozone as a whole, purchasing managers' index for the manufacturing sector from Markit came in at 51.6 for March, above the consensus estimate of 51.4 and the previous month's 51.4.

Germany's manufacturing PMI printed at 50.7, above the 50.4 forecast and the 50.4 previously.

France's 49.6 figure was in line with predictions and flat on the prior month, though the Spanish print of 53.4 was short of the 54.0 estimate and down from February's 54.1.

Italian PMI at 53.5 was ahead of estimates of 52.5 and up from 52.2 a month ago, with Swiss, Greek and Irish numbers also ahead of forecast.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank’s newly expanded bond-buying regime will begin to take effect on Friday as it renews the battle against deflation, with settlement of €80bn euros a month of purchases; a third more than the ECB was previously spending.