European shares fall, led lower by carmakers and luxury stocks
LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - European shares retreated on Tuesday, with carmakers and luxury goods stocks among the worst-performers after China devalued its yuan currency.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 0.2 percent while the euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index declined by 0.3 percent.
China is an important export market for European luxury goods companies and carmakers, and shares in those two sectors were among the hardest hit in the wake of the yuan devaluation.
Carmaker BMW fell 2.6 percent while luxury goods group Swatch weakened by 3 percent.
Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Adecco (VTX: ADEN.VX - news) also fell 3 percent after results from the world's biggest staffing group slightly lagged market expectations.
However, shares in Finnish cranemaker Konecranes surged 23 percent after Konecranes (Helsinki: KCR1V.HE - news) agreed on a merger with U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . peer Terex. (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Alistair Smout)