PARIS (dpa-AFX) - he French market declined on Friday, as sentiment continued to be impacted by Thursday's surprise decision of the Swiss National Bank to abandon its currency ceiling and take interest rate deeper into negative territory to counteract the strengthening of currency.
Germany's inflation eased to its lowest level in five years, dragged by lower energy costs amid falling oil prices, final figures from Destatis revealed. The harmonized index of consumer prices rose 0.1 percent year-on-year in December, confirming the preliminary estimate, following a 0.5 percent increase in the previous month.
Meanwhile, Germany's factory employment increased in November from a year ago, preliminary figures from Destatis showed. Employment in manufacturing units with 50 or more workers grew 1.1 percent year-on-year to 5.3 million in November.
European new car registrations grew in 2014, ending the declining trend seen in the past six years. New car registrations grew 5.7 percent to 11.88 million units, marking the first increase since 2007, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers Association, or ACEA, said.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks was down 0.51 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, was losing 0.98 percent.
The CAC 40 index fell 0.17 percent.
Alcatel Lucent and Lafarge declined 2.8 percent each.
Saint Gobain dropped 2.2 percent and Bouygues declined around 2 percent.
BNP Paribas fell 1.6 percent and Societe Generale dropped 1.1 percent. Credit Agricole was up modestly.
Meanwhile, Carrefour gained over 1 percent after reporting fourth-quarter sales.
Other major markets in the region also declined.
The Asian stocks fell broadly, with another downturn in oil prices, disappointing quarterly results from U.S. banks and Thursday's surprise decision of the Swiss Central bank scrapping its currency cap on the franc weighing on sentiment.
In the U.S., futures point to a lower open on Wall Street. Stocks fell for a fifth consecutive session on Thursday, with the major averages losing between 0.6 percent and 1.5 percent to end at their lowest levels in about a month.
Investors look for another batch of U.S. economic data on consumer prices, industrial production and consumer sentiment as well as comments from Fed officials Narayana Kocherlakota, John Williams and James Bullard to assess the health of the world's largest economy.
Crude for February delivery gained $1.17 to $47.42 per barrel, while gold dropped $5.6 to $1259.2 a troy ounce.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX