[MILAN] European shares fell on Friday led by a slump in tech stocks which tracked losses among global peers following an earning miss at online giant Amazon, while a flurry of earning updates failed to provide support.

Europe's tech index, the best performer so far this year, was down 1.5 per cent, helping drag the pan-European STOXX 600 index down 0.8 per cent by 0717 GMT. UK's FTSE declined 0.4 per cent.

UBS fell 3.8 per cent, making it the biggest drag to the STOXX. The Swiss bank kept a cautious outlook on the second half of 2017 after it reported an unexpected rise in second-quarter net profit.

Among top fallers were shares in French car maker Renault and Proximus, which also reported results.

A bright spot was Adidas, up 7.4 per cent to a record high as the group raised its full-year outlook after improving margins helped the German sportswear maker to achieve an 18 per cent jump in second-quarter operating profit.

REUTERS