Dec 23 (Reuters) – European shares were flat on Friday, with the weakness in some luxury firms and tech stocks offset by gains in healthcare companies.
The region-wide STOXX 600 (.STOXX) was off 0.03% at 0810 GMT, but is on pace for a 0.6% advance in the last week before Christmas after two straight weeks of losses.
The index closed down 1% on Thursday after US data showing a tight labor market and economic resilience fueled concerns that the Federal Reserve would need to keep hiking interest rates aggressively for longer.
Among STOXX 600 sectors, miners (.SXPP) rose 0.4% to lead gains on the day.
But the biggest boost to the STOXX 600 came from healthcare firms (.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 US Department of Defense.
Some China-focused luxury firms such as LVMH (LVMH.PA) and Kering (PRTP.PA) were a drag on the main index on news that China is expecting a peak in COVID-19 infections within a week.
The tech sector (.SX8P) fell 0.3%, bogged 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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