European shares hit 3-week low as SAP slides

Technology stocks pushed European shares to three-week lows on Thursday after software firm SAP reported poor results, the latest company to warn about damage from protracted trade tensions as gloom about earnings spreads across global equities.

Shares in Europe’s most valuable tech company dove 6 per cent after it said investors would have to wait till next year for a major improvement in margins as the business software group reported a 21 per cent fall in quarterly operating profit.

That added to nerves around the first batches of corporate results in Europe and the US this week and sent Germany’s DAX to a one-month low. The pan-European stocks benchmark index fell 0.5 per cent by 0832 GMT.