LONDON (Reuters) - European shares opened lower on Monday as on-going worries about the U.S. trade policies and concerns about German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition weighed on sentiment.
The pan-European STOXX 600 (STOXX) was down about 1.2 percent by 0730 GMT in line with Germany's trade-sensitive DAX. (GDAXI)
In London, the FTSE 100 was down 1.1 percent and British gambling technology company Playtech (L:PTEC) posted the worst performance, losing over 20 percent after it disappointed investors with a trading update.
Among rare winners, British software company Micro Focus International (L:MCRO) was up 3.3 percent after it said it had agreed to sell its Linux operating system SUSE business to a private equity fund advised by Sweden's EQT Partners for $2.535 billion.
In the mid-cap segment of the market, Vedanta Resources (L:VED) surged over 25 percent after chairman Anil Agarwal's family trust agreed to a deal that values the mining conglomerate at 2.3 billion pounds.
Milan's FTSE MIB (FTMIB) was down 1.9 percent with Italian pharmaceutical group Recordati (MI:RECI) falling over 15 percent after a consortium of investment funds controlled by CVC Capital Partners has agreed to buy a stake at a discount.