European Shares Slide as Tech Leads Selloff, Carlsberg Impacted by Britvic Rejection

European shares saw a decline on Friday, led by a selloff in technology stocks. Danish brewer Carlsberg Group's shares plummeted nearly 6% after its $3.9 billion takeover bid was rejected by Britvic. Despite the drop, the European benchmark remains on track for modest weekly gains.

European shares opened lower on Friday, with technology shares at the helm of the selloff, while Danish brewer Carlsberg Group slumped after British soft drinks maker Britvic rejected its $3.9 billion revised takeover proposal.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.2%, as of 0715 GMT, with the technology sub-index losing 0.6% after rising nearly 2% in the previous session. The construction and materials sector slipped 0.7%, while retail shed 0.5% as British discount chain B&M fell 1.8% after Morgan Stanley lowered its rating to "underweight" from "equal-weight".

The European benchmark was still on track for modest weekly gains, following a more than 2% drop last week when markets were rattled after French President Emmanuel Macron had called for a snap parliamentary election. Among other stocks, Denmark's Zealand Pharma, jumped 23.1% after an early-stage study showed a high dose of its drug helped reduce weight by an average 8.6% after 16 weekly doses.

Carlsberg Group dropped nearly 6% after Britvic rejected its takeover bid, citing that the proposal "significantly undervalued" the group and its prospects. Shares of Britvic jumped 14.4%.

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