MILAN/FRANKFURT: European stocks hit a near one-month low on Thursday following Wall Street’s worst sell-off since October on concerns about high valuations, with investors also growing wary about a rise in more contagious coronavirus variants.

The pan-European STOXX 600 fell 1.9%, turning negative for the year, while major regional bourses like Germany’s DAX and France CAC 40 slid further into the red and UK’s FTSE 100 held on to slim gains for the year.

Investors looked past strong earnings from Apple and Facebook overnight as well as the US Federal Reserve’s pledge to stick to loose monetary policy as worries about slow rollout of COVID-19 Technology stocks fell 2.6%, pulling back further from two-decade high hit earlier this year, while insurers , oil & gas and automakers stocks were the biggest sectoral decliners, falling almost 2.5%. Swatch Group slipped 2.5% after it reported its first annual loss since the early days of the Swiss watchmaker almost 40 years ago as the pandemic battered demand in the luxury sector.

The world’s largest spirits maker Diageo jumped 3.7% after it reported a surprise rise in underlying net sales growth in the first half of the year, helped by strong US demand.vaccines and more curbs in Europe weighed on the mood.