European shares edge lower at opening

European shares edged down at the opening on Tuesday, weighed down by plane maker Airbus and its suppliers, while an event-packed week kept investors cautious.

At 0728 GMT, the pan-European STOXX 600 index dipped 0.07 per cent, with Paris’s CAC down 0.2 per cent and Frankfurt’s trade-sensitive DAX off 0.1 per cent.

Shares of the plane maker Airbus dropped 2.5 per cent after the US Trade Representative proposed tariffs on a list of European Union products including large commercial aircraft and parts.

Washington is seeking to retaliate for more than $11 billion worth of EU subsidies to Airbus that the World Trade Organisation has found cause “adverse effects” for the United States.

Airbus suppliers such as Safran, Leonardo and Dassault lost between 0.7 per cent and 1.2 per cent, reports Reuters.

Swiss drug-maker Novartis slipped over 2.0 per cent, among the biggest drags on STOXX 600, trading for the first day after completing the spin off its eye-care division Alcon.

Alcon shares surged 32 per cent in its debut. Bechtle AG dropped more than 2.0 per cent and pulled the tech sector lower after Berenberg downgraded the German IT company’s stock to “hold”.

Merck KGaA dipped on winning the backing of Versum’s board for a sweetened $6.5 billion takeover bid, overturning an agreed merger with rival Entegris as it bets on a recovery in electronic materials markets.

Norwegian mobile operator Telenor slipped after agreeing to buy a 54 per cent stake in Finnish telecoms firm DNA for 1.5 billion euros ($1.69 billion).

Keeping losses in check were shares of Total SA, which rose after the French oil and gas major and its partners signed a long-awaited deal with Papua New Guinea that will allow initial work to start on a $13 billion plan to double the country’s liquefied natural gas exports.