Steep fall in German investor sentiment in October.: ZEW

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 0.9 percent at 1,417.16 points, with the euro zone’s blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 down 0.8 percent. USA stock futures also slipped, pointing to a lower open Tuesday.

Official data released earlier Tuesday showed that Chinese imports tumbled 20.4% in September on a year-over-year basis, the eleventh straight monthly decline.

However, shares of British brewing giant SABMiller Plc jumped 9 percent after Anheuser-Busch InBev SA agreed to buy it in the biggest ever takeover of a British company.

Budweiser maker AB InBev, which secured the deal with its fifth offer priced at £44 per SABMiller share, saw its shares climb 1.68 percent to 100.00 euros in Brussels. “People who had been buying the miners over the last week would now be tempted to sell and lock in a few profits on them”, Dafydd Davies, a partner at London-based Charles Hanover Investments, told Reuters.

“The exhaust gas scandal of Volkswagen and the weak growth of emerging markets has dampened economic outlook for Germany”, ZEW President Clemens Fuest said in a statement.

“While Chinese exports posted a healthy rebound, weak imports are still indicating that the Chinese economy is continuing to struggle”, said Markus Huber, trader and analyst at Peregrine & Black.

Overnight, Asian shares slid deeper into the red in a choppy trading session on Tuesday, with resources names leading losses after latest trade figures out of China rekindled concerns over demand from the world’s second-biggest economy.

The uncertain mood was reinforced by a survey by ZEW think tank that showed morale among German analysts and investors plummeted in October to its lowest level in a year.

Mr Gabriel said the German economy was expected to power ahead as strong domestic consumption outweighs “gloomier global growth outlook due to slowing growth in China and in raw materials-rich emerging countries”. While the Shanghai Composite Index ended the day mostly flat, Indian, Japanese and Hong Kong markets all closed in the red.