Euro Stocks Close Lower, Led by Utilities

European stocks fell on Friday, recording their third straight week of losses, led by utilities, oil & gas and basic resources while banks and media pulled in the opposite direction.

Volumes were thin in the absence of U.S. market participants due to the extended Fourth of July weekend.

"With U.S. markets closed today for the Independence Day holidays we have seen the major indexes lack direction," CMC Markets said in a note. "Major stock specific stories have also been hard to come by today," CMC Markets added.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index closed 0.1 percent lower at 842.52 points. It lost 0.2 percent over the week and has fallen 5.1 percent since its five-month high close on June 11.

Utilities shaved most points off the index on Friday.

EDF fell 4.5 percent after Morgan Stanley downgraded its rating to "equal weight" from "overweight." UBS and Citigroup trimmed their price target on the EDF stock.

Also in the sector, E.ON dropped 1.2 percent and GDF Suez lost 0.6 percent.

Weaker oil and copper prices weighed on oil & gas and basic resources stocks amid renewed doubts about the outlook for economic growth triggered by weaker-than-expected U.S. June jobs data on Thursday.

Banks added the most points, with Barclays up 2.8 percent, Banco Santander gaining 2.2 percent, BNP Paribas adding 2 percent, HSBC rising 1.7 percent and Deutsche Bank putting on 1.7 percent.

Media stocks advanced after Credit Suisse upgraded the European sector to "overweight" from "underweight." The DJ Stoxx media index rose 0.5 percent.

Wolters Kluwer jumped 4.3 percent and Reed Elsevier climbed 3.9 percent.

The DJ EuroSTOXX 50 index of European blue chips squeezed in a gain of 0.3 percent to 2,376.48 points.

BayernLB chartists saw support at 2,350 points, saying in a technical analysis note that a break below that level would spark a clear "sell" signal.

Week Ahead

Europe's top-300 index rose 35 percent between March 9 and June 11, as improving sentiment indicators buoyed economic recovery hopes, but has traded choppily in a narrow range since.

Strategists said that picture was unlikely to change much in the week ahead.

"Next week brings too little quantitative or qualitative data to give stock markets any decisive direction," said LBBW investment analyst Michael Kohler.

Ad van Tiggelen, senior strategist at ING Investment Management, said "the road ahead will be bumpy for risky assets" such as equities, and LandesBank Berlin said stock market fundamentals remained fragile.

"We don't want to rule out further setbacks. Nonetheless, we assume that many investors will exploit an eventual temporary weakness on the market and that as a result some liquidity which has not yet been invested will flow back into the equity market again," Raiffeisen Research said.

Stefan Scheurer, capital markets analyst at Allianz Global Investors, spun on the same theme, saying investors with big cash allocations might use phases of stock market weakness to shift some money into equities.

Valuations could also lend some support.

According to consensus data compiled by Goldman Sachs , European shares trade at on average 11.4 times 12-month forward earnings compared with a 10-year average of around 13.5.

The U.S. corporate earnings reporting season gets under way next week with aluminium group Alcoa on July 8 and oil major Chevron on July 9.

"Alcoa will be a signal. Its second-quarter numbers are probably not good but a positive outlook could lift stock markets," said Joerg Rahn, head of investment at Bankhaus Marcard, Stein & Co.

London's FTSE 100 index and the French CAC 40 both edged up 0.1 percent on Friday while the German DAX lost 0.2 percent and Zurich's SMI fell 0.3 percent.

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