European stocks fall at open; London down 0.19pc

LONDON: Europe's main stock markets dropped at the opening of trading on Wednesday, with London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top shares down 0.19 percent to 5,853.42 points.

Frankfurt's DAX 30 shed 0.38 percent to 7,076.31 points and in Paris the CAC 40 retreated 0.37 percent to 3,857.65.

Asian stocks closed mostly lower as worries over the state of the global economy hit confidence, but a late rally saw the Nikkei finish the day just in positive territory, traders said.

Demand took a hit after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that there had been a "loss of momentum" in the already tepid US jobs market.

Two years into a slow and largely jobless recovery, Bernanke said on Tuesday that employment and growth would eventually pick up, but that a recent soft patch had to carefully monitored and that stimulative policies were still necessary.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011