European shares fell on Friday to retreat from a one-week high reached in the previous session, with supermarket group Casino losing more ground in the wake of a negative research note on it.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which had risen 1.3 per cent on Thursday, fell 0.6 per cent, while the euro zone’s blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index also weakened 0.8 per cent.
Weak oil prices put pressure on the shares of energy companies, which in turn weighed on equities.
Shares in French company Casino also fell 3.8 per cent, extending losses from an 11.5 per cent slump on Thursday after research firm Muddy Waters said Casino was one of the “most overvalued and misunderstood’’ companies it had come across.
Casino had said on Thursday that the report contained “grossly erroneous allegations’’ that the group would answer in detail.