European markets saw big losses on the session Friday as investors worried about problems in the US housing sector.
The FTSE Eurofirst 300 dropped 1.16 percent to 1,599.63. In Frankfurt the Dax was 1.46 percent lower to 7,874.85, while the CAC-40 fell 1.79 percent to 5,957.16 in Paris.
Madrid’s IBEX dropped 1.82 percent to 14,930.1.
The Dax and the CAC-40 each had only two gainers on the session.
The best performer on the Dax was in the pharmaceuticals sector, where Schering (FWB: SCH) added 0.28 percent to €104.83.
The other gainer there was Volkswagen (FWB: VOW; OTC: VLKAY), which gained 0.21 percent to €121.79.
In Paris, meanwhile, the automobile manufacturing sector had the biggest winner of the day as Peugeot (Euronext: UG; OTC: PEUGY) was up 1.36 percent to €63.96.
Carmakers remained mixed, however, as DaimlerChrysler (FWB: DCX; NYSE: DCX; TYO: 7663) fell 2.47 percent to €65.16.
As on the Dax, the other gainer of the day on the CAC-40 was in the pharmaceuticals sector.
Sanofi (Euronext: SAN; NSYE: SNY) was 0.32 percent higher to €62.46.
The worst performance came from steel good manufacturer Vallourec (Euronext: VK), which was 4.89 percent lower to €216.18 on the news that it will sell two firms to Arcelor-Mittal (Euronext: MT; NYSE: MT).
The construction sector in Paris was lower, with Vinci (Euronext: DG) down 2.48 percent to €55.77 and Lafarge (Euronext: LG) falling 3.64 percent to €126.75.
Banks also declined.
Societe Generale (Euronext: GLE) was 2.29 percent lower to €135.54, while Commerzbank (FWB: CBK) was down 2.77 percent to €33.73 on concerns about the US housing market and BNP Paribas (Euronext: BNP; TYO: 8665) dropped 2.99 percent to €84.24.
In the oil sector, Total (Euronext: FP; NSYE: TOT) fell 2.73 percent to €59.47.