The Stoxx Europe 600 Index wiped out losses of as much as 0.5% to gain 0.3% by the close However the benchmark was sharply lower for the week dropping 1.5% as participants monitored issues such as global monetary policy, the delta Covid variant and China’s tech crackdown Retail (+1.2%) was the best performing sector, followed by utilities (+0.9%) and technology (+0.9%) on Friday Marks Spencer (+14.1%) topped the boards after it raised profit guidance for fiscal 2022 as a result of a strong start to the year, with sales growth across all segments, but warned that supply chain
issues could bite In contrast, Automotive (-0.5%) was the lone industry group to decline, as concerns about production amid a chip shortage once again hit shares.