European stocks drop on emerging market jitters

European equities fell on Monday, as weak Chinese economic figures stoked fresh concern over the outlook for troubled emerging markets, dealers said. In late morning deals, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index fell 0.18 percent to stand at 6,498.76 points, hit also by poor earnings news from Britain's state-rescued bank Lloyds. Frankfurt's DAX 30 shed 0.43 percent to 9,266.16 points and in Paris the CAC 40 index lost 0.34 percent to 4,151.68 compared with Friday's close, as investors shrugged off broadly upbeat eurozone manufacturing data. "European equities are trading lower again ... having been unable to hold on to earlier gains despite overall positive European figures," said trader Markus Huber at broker Peregrine & Black. "Not much has changed over the weekend, while markets are trying to stabilise there is still plenty of uncertainty out there where emerging market countries are concerned. "Until battered emerging market currencies like for example the Turkish lira and the South African rand show clear signs of stability and consequently that investor confidence is returning, it will be unlikely that European stock markets will  be able to regain the strong upside momentum seen less than two weeks ago." The European single currency firmed to $1.3513 from $1.3487 late in New York on Friday. Gold slipped to $1,246.09 an ounce from $1,251 an ounce on Friday on the London Bullion Market. The Turkish lira sank 0.13 percent to 2.26 to the dollar, but held off last week's record lows as traders continued to digest Turkey's huge interest rate hike. At Capital Economics, emerging markets economist William Jackson said: "January's manufacturing purchasing  managers' index (PMI) data provide further evidence that the economies of central Europe are enjoying a decent recovery, but that manufacturing in emerging Europe's two largest economies, Russia and Turkey, is struggling." Asian shares mostly sank in holiday-thinned trade after official Chinese data pointed to a slowdown in manufacturing activity in the world's number two economy and key driver of global growth. Tokyo stocks sank 1.98 percent and Seoul slid 1.09 percent, but Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei and Kuala Lumpur were shut for the lunar new year holiday. China's PMI index fell to 50.5 in January from 51 in December and 51.4 in November, the National Bureau of Statistics and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said. Any figure above 50 indicates expansion while anything below signals contraction. Investors exiting emerging markets "Overnight, the rout in emerging markets continued on the back of slowing data out of China as the country’s PMI manufacturing report continued to deteriorate last month," said ETX Capital trader Ishaq Siddiqi. "Despite the weakness being widely expected, traders were taking no chances and continued to dump emerging market assets in favour for riskier investments." Last week's decision by the US Federal Reserve to slash its bond-buying programme by $10 billion to $65 billion a month, citing a pick-up in the economy, has renewed worries over emerging markets. The Fed's cutback sent emerging market currencies plunging in India, South Africa and Turkey, despite a raft of interest rate hikes, as traders fretted over vast outflows of capital from their economies. Data from US-based fund analysts EPFR Global showed investors pulled a total of $12.2 billion (9.03 billion euros) out of equities in emerging markets during January. That included a record weekly outflow of $6.3 billion from emerging market equities in the week to January 29, according to EPFR. "Since some $12 billion of foreign money fled the stock markets of emerging economies last month, the lurking possibility of contagion is adversely affecting sentiment to risk assets," said analyst Brenda Kelly at trading firm IG. Britain's Lloyds Banking Group topped the fallers board on the FTSE 100, sliding 2.94 percent to 80.84 pence. The state-rescued lender warned it will take an extra hit of almost £2.0 billion ($3.3 billion, 2.4 billion euros) to cover mis-selling claims, but forecast a "small" profit for 2013.