European stock markets gave up most of the week’s gains in the space of a few hours on Friday, as markets went into profit-taking mode after an initial benefit from U.S. jobs data.

The French CAC 40 index dropped 0.9 percent to 5,174, the German DAX 30 index weakened 1.3 percent to 5,952 and the UK FTSE 100 dropped 0.3 percent to 6,026.

The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index fell 0.4 percent to 336.12, with metals stocks losing steam after a strong rise earlier in the week, and automakers were also among the losers.

Only energy stocks such as Total and BP showed a strong advance after UBS upgraded the sector to overweight.

BAA also closed higher as investors led by Grupo Ferrovial launched an unsolicited $15.3 billion offer.

European markets initially gained some ground after better-than-expected U.S. jobs growth of 210,000 and wage growth of 0.2 percent. Analysts had expected wages to grow by 0.3 percent in the month.

“Effectively, you’ve had two months where jobs growth has been in excess of 200,000 and that’s the first time that this has happened since the summer of 2004,” said Phillip Shaw, an analyst at Investec Securities in London.

But markets in Europe picked up the profit-taking sentiment of Wall Street, and finished the session with losses.

Fuente: CNN