Europe open: Stocks slip after Nice terror attack

European equity markets slipped in early trade as sentiment took a hit from a terror attack in Nice.

A 0850 BST, the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 and Germany’s DAX were down 0.3%, while France’s CAC 40 was 0.5% weaker.

At the same time, oil prices were in the red again amid worries about a supply glut. West Texas Intermediate was down 1.3% at $45.08 a barrel while Brent crude was 1.4% lower at $46.70.

Accendo Markets’ Mike van Dulken said: “The subject of terrorism is sure to dominate headlines today, with attention also sure to focus on what this means for the evolving shape of the political landscape in France and the US (Le Pen, Trump sure to gain more support), not to mention how the UK views this in light of having just voted to leave the EU.”

On Thursday night, a man drove a truck into a crowd of revellers who were celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France, leaving at least 84 people dead and around 18 in critical condition, The attacker – who was known to police but not on the terrorism watch list – was killed, and President Francois Hollande has now extended the state of emergency by a further three months.

Travel and leisure stocks were under pressure after the attack, with French hotels group Accor down just over 3%, EasyJet 2.2% weaker and Air France-KLM 1.2% lower. The Stoxx 600 travel & leisure index was down 1%.

In individual company news, Swatch shares tumbled after the Swiss watch maker reported a large drop in first-half profit.

Swedish clothing retailer Hennes & Mauritz edged higher after it said sales rose 8% in June, beating analysts’ expectations.

Elsewhere, Monsanto was trading up 3% after German drug and agrichemical company Bayer sweetened its offer for the company by $3 to $125 per share.

Also on Friday, investors were sifting through Chinese data releases. Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed the world's second-largest economy expanded by 6.7% on the year, steady from the previous quarter and a touch ahead of economists’ expectations of 6.6% growth.

Compared to the first quarter, gross domestic product was up 1.8%. The Chinese government has a growth target of 6.5% to 7% for this year.

“The Chinese economy has shown signs of bottoming out,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets.

“We can thank the continuous efforts by the People’s Bank of China, which introduced various different stimulus measures to achieve that figure. The number for the second quarter was 1.8% higher as compared to the first quarter. This also confirmed that the industrial production and retails sales data have also picked up steam on a year-on-year basis during the month of June.

“China's biggest challenge was to shift its economy from manufacturing-based to consumption-based, and this raised many questions among market participants whether the country would be able to achieve this. A hard landing for the Chinese economy has been very much on the cards and investors have been questioning the slowdown. The Brexit vote may have an effect in the coming days, as we can see if there were any consequences as the export numbers took a hit.”

Other data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed industrial production in China rose 6.2% in June from a year earlier, up from 6.0% growth in May.

Meanwhile, fixed-asset investment rose 9% year-on-year between January and June down from 9.6% growth in the first five months of the year.

Retail sales were up 10.6% in June compared to the year before, up from a 10% rise in May.