Technology shares pushed European stock markets lower on Friday after US chipmaker Broadcom warned of a broad slowdown in demand due to trade tensions and the US ban on Chinese mobile phone company Huawei Technologies.

Disappointing industrial data out of China also dampened sentiment shortly after opening and the pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.48 per cent by 0754 GMT, with Germany's trade-sensitive DAX falling 0.5 per cent.

The forecast of a $2-billion hit to sales at Broadcom, one of the biggest US players in the chip sector, came as Chinese industrial output growth slowed to a more than 17-year-low of 5 per cent in May and was among the clearest signs yet of the damage US President Donald Trump's trade war may do to global growth.

European semiconductor companies Infineon, AMS and STMicroelectronics, Siltronic, Dialog Semiconductor fell between 3 per cent and 6 per cent.

“Now you have a major company coming out and saying the trade war impact and Huawei's fallout is clearly having an impact on end demand and that is weighing on sentiment,” said Mark Taylor, sales trader at Mirabaud Securities in London.

Adding to the downbeat mood, China said it was raising anti-dumping duties on certain alloy-steel seamless tubes and pipes imported from the US and the European Union as much as 10 times from previous rates.

The benchmark STOXX index was still on course to post its second consecutive week of gains as expectations of more monetary easing in Europe and the US offsets the concerns over growth that drove a sell-off in May.

Stocks are up 3 per cent this month after falling 6 per cent in May, the worst monthly performance in more than two years.

Utilities, typically a defensive play when the economic outlook turns down, was the only sector in the black, helped by a 1.2 per cent rise in French firm Engie after it signed a deal with Fiat Chrysler to provide charging points for electric vehicles.

Scor SE rose 2.3 per cent, and was the top gainer on the STOXX, after JP Morgan upgraded the French re-insurer shares to ”overweight” from “neutral” ahead of a new three-year strategic plan due to be outlined in September.

One big faller was DKSH Holdings, tumbling 7 per cent after Credit Suisse downgraded shares of the Switzerland-based consultancy to “underperform”.

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