European stocks sink to their lowest in a week as COVID - 19 cases in Asia

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Aug 17 - European stocks sank to their lowest in a week on Tuesday as a spike of COVID - 19 cases in Asia raised fears of a slowdown in global economic growth.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was lost 0.5% by 0710 GMT, falling for a second straight session after the index marked its longest winning streak in more than a decade.

Tighter scrutiny of China's internet sector, nationwide lockdown in New Zealand and movement restrictions in several Asian countries kept investors on edge even as the European economies continued to recover from pandemic-driven downturn.

Chinese tech firm Tencent, which owns a stake in Dutch tech company Prosus, fell 4.2%.

Economically sensitive cyclical sectors such as oil and gas travel and leisure, automakers and banks led the early declines.

US-listed shares of miner Woodside Petroleum jumped 8.6% after it posted its highest annual profit in nearly a decade and said it would sell its petroleum assets to BHP Group.