European stocks fell for a fifth day as a series of technical glitches swept around the world, hitting trading, travel and support services.
The Stoxx 600 Index ended the session with a loss of 0.8% to notch its worst week since October. Travel and leisure stocks were among the day’s biggest losers, as airlines, hotels and other companies grappled with tech issues. All other European sectors were also in negative territory.
While trading across the region proceeded as normal, there was no pricing data for FTSE indexes, including the FTSE 100 and FTSE MIB benchmarks, for four hours, even though stocks in the UK and Italy continued to trade. The LSE Group, which operates the London stock exchange, also said it had experienced a technical issue.
“Derivatives professionals, market making on indexes and rates for instance are all affected by the situation,” said Anthony Cohen, a global options and futures broker at Market Securities.