"Investors are waking up after putting too much hope in central banks"
- Guillaume Chaloin, a fund manager at Meeschaert Asset Management
European stocks closed in red on Friday after Fitch Ratings cut Spain's credit rating and German exports fell more than expected.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index erased 0.29 per cent to 241.93. Germany's DAX Index declined 0.22 per cent and France's CAC 40 Index slid 0.63 per cent. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index decreased 0.23 per cent to 5,435.08.
The Fitch downgrade "should have been expected," said Guillaume Chaloin, a fund manager at Meeschaert Asset Management in Paris.
"Investors are waking up after putting too much hope in central banks. We forgot that there are a lot of problems and nothing has changed. Contagion can occur. We're seeing this in Germany with exports starting to deteriorate."
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