Dec 23 (Reuters) – European shares were flat on Friday, with weakness in some luxury companies and technology stocks weighed down by gains in healthcare companies.
The region-wide STOXX 600 (.STOXX) was down 0.03% at 0810 GMT, but is on pace for a 0.6% gain in the last week before Christmas after two straight weeks of losses.
U.S. data, which showed a tight labor market and economic stability, fell 1% on Thursday.
Among the STOXX 600 sectors, miners (.SXPP) rose 0.4% on the day.
But the biggest gainers for the STOXX 600 came from health care companies ( .SXDP ), which rose 0.3%, helped by a 4.9% jump in Bavarian Nordic ( BAVA.CO ) after the vaccine maker signed a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.
Some China-focused luxury companies such as LVMH ( LVMH.PA ) and Kering ( PRTP.PA ) were drags on the main index on news that China is expecting a peak in COVID-19 infections within a week.
The technology sector (.SX8P) fell 0.3%, weighed down by losses in chip stocks such as Aixtron (AIXGn.DE) and ASML Holding (ASML.AS).
Reporting by Amruta Khandekar; Editing by Savio D’Souza
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