H&M leads European shares lower after sales miss, telecoms rise

European shares dipped in early dealing on Friday weighed down by disappointing trading updates from fashion brands H&M and Ferragamo and continued weakness among banking stocks.

Telecom shares rose after Sweden's Tele2 agreed to sell its Dutch unit to Deutsche Telekom.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.2 percent by 0826 GMT, while euro zone blue chips also fell 0.2 percent and the UK's FTSE 100 inched 0.1 percent lower.

H&M plunged 12 percent, leading losers on the STOXX, after the Swedish fashion retailer reported an unexpected drop in quarterly sales due to fewer visitors to its core brand stores.

Ferragamo fell 7.3 percent after the Italian luxury goods company said it could not confirm targets it had set for the next three years and 2018 would be another year of transition.

Banks pulled the STOXX index down the most, with the sector under continued pressure a day after central banks in the euro zone and the UK kept benchmark interest rates unchanged.

Telecoms, the worst performing sector in Europe this year, rose 0.2 percent. Tele2 jumped more than 4 percent after it agreed to sell its Dutch business to Deutsche Telekom.