European Stocks Finish Lower but Maintain Small Weekly Gains

European stocks closed lower on Friday, amid concerns about the slow rollout of vaccines, a rise in the number of new Coronavirus infections and re-imposing lockdown measures in France, in addition to a the rise in U.S. Treasury bond yields.

The STOXX Europe 600 index dropped by 0.76% and closed at 423.35 points, limiting its weekly gains to 0.2%.

Meanwhile, the blue chip STOXX 50 index lost 0.65% and finished at 3,842.45 points.

The French CAC40 index finished lower by 1.07%, while the German DAX and the UK’s FTSE100 declined by 1.05% each.