European stocks pull back from 11-month peak on profit-taking

European stocks fell on Monday, and pulled back from an 11-month high on profit-taking and investors' risk aversion due to growing concerns over Covid-19 infections in Europe and China.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.4% as of 11:35 GMT, after it closed higher by 0.7% on Friday and hit the highest since February 2020 at 411.92 points, following record gains in Wall Street.

The Stoxx Europe index gained around 3.0% during the past week, and posted the second straight weekly gain, after fears over the US political tensions eased in addition to hopes of extra stimulus measures to support the US economy after the Democrats took control of the Senate and the House of Representatives .

The pan European index opened lower today in the first session of the week and pulled back from its 11-month high with most of the major European markets and sectors seeing red.

The mining sector saw the largest losses in Europe, with a drop of more than 1.5%, after metal prices fell in most global markets.

Most European countries are now under the strictest lockdown since the first coronavirus wave , according to the Oxford Covid-19 Government Response Tracker, which tracks and compares worldwide travel bans and closures of schools and workplaces.

The National Health Commission of China said on Monday reported the largest daily increase in new Covid-19 cases in more than 5 months, especially as new infections continued to rise in Hebei Province that borders the capital, Beijing.

S&P 500 futures fell 0.75%, after the index closed higher by 0.5% on Friday at Wall Street, and hit its record high of 3,826.69 points.

Back to Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 index fell 0.5%, France's CAC 40 fell 0.6%, and the UK's FTSE 100 fell 0.5%.

Germany's DAX dropped 0.7%, on profit-taking after it hit on Friday its all-time record high of 14,131.52 points.