LONDON — Continued concerns about slowing demand in China dragged European stock markets down in midmorning trading on Wednesday.
The DAX in Frankfurt led the slide, falling 1.1 percent to 9,930.80, while the FSTE 100 in London and the CAC 40 in Paris were each down 0.9 percent, to 6,285.42 and to 4602.12, respectively. Milan’s FTSE MIB fell 0.5 percent to 21,936.18.
The euro traded at $1.14, the pound at $1.53, the Swiss franc at $1.04 and the Danish krona at $0.15 at 11:15 a.m. CET.
Retail and luxury stocks were mostly down, with the exception of French Connection Group, which climbed 3 percent to 0.32 pounds, and Boohoo.com, 0.7 percent to 0.33 pounds.
Among the stocks that lost the most ground were Moncler, 2.7 percent to 14.31 euros; Swatch Group, 2.6 percent to 76.60 Swiss francs, and Pandora, 5 percent to 758.50 Danish kronor.
Earlier this week, China announced that imports fell 20 percent in September, while inflation rose 1.6 percent year-on-year in the month, missing analysts’ expectations of 1.8 percent.