European shares open lower as tech losses weigh

(Reuters) – European shares opened lower on Friday, with technology shares at the helm of the selloff, while Danish brewer Carlsberg (CSE:) Group slumped after British soft drinks maker Britvic rejected its $3.9 billion revised takeover proposal.

The pan-European was down 0.2%, as of 0715 GMT, with the technology sub-index losing 0.6% after rising nearly 2% in the previous session.

The construction and materials sector slipped 0.7%, while retail shed 0.5% as British discount chain B&M fell 1.8% after Morgan Stanley lowered its rating to “underweight” from “equal-weight”.

The European benchmark was still on track for modest weekly gains, following a more than 2% drop last week when markets were rattled after French President Emmanuel Macron had called for a snap parliamentary election.

Among other stocks, Denmark’s Zealand Pharma (NASDAQ:), jumped 23.1% after an early-stage study showed a high dose of its drug helped reduce weight by an average 8.6% after 16 weekly doses.

Carlsberg Group dropped nearly 6% after Britvic rejected its takeover bid, citing that the proposal “significantly undervalued” the group and its prospects. Shares of Britvic jumped 14.4%.