European stocks fell

European stocks fell, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index paring its fourth weekly gain, as investors weighed worse-than-estimated earnings from Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

A gauge of European technology companies fell 1 percent as Google, owner of the world’s most popular Internet search engine, yesterday reported second-quarter sales and profit that missed analysts’ estimates. Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, posted fourth-quarter profit that trailed analysts’ forecasts by the biggest margin in at least a decade.

SAP, the biggest maker of business-management software, slid 2 percent to 55.88 euros. ARM Holdings, whose chip designs are used in phones that run on Google’s Android operating system, dropped 2.4 percent to 898.5 pence.

Tieto Oyj dropped 4.2 percent to 14.84 euros, its largest slump in eight weeks, as Finland’s biggest software producer reported second-quarter net income of 7.4 million euros ($9.7 million), less than half the 17.2 million euros estimated by analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank governors begin a two-day meeting in Moscow today. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said yesterday he will urge his European counterparts to spur growth, citing the U.S. economy as an example of successful recovery.

Royal Vopak NV tumbled 5.6 percent to 43.26 euros, its biggest drop since March 1, after the biggest chemical-and-oil storage company reduced its forecast for 2013 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to a range of 730 million euros to 780 million euros. It earlier predicted Ebitda to be between 760 million euros and 800 million euros.

Remy Cointreau SA slid 4.2 percent to 78.64 euros after JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered its recommendation on the shares to underweight, a rating similar to sell, from neutral. The brokerage said a sales recovery may take longer than previously expected as the cognac maker yesterday reported a drop in first-quarter revenue.

Separately, a shareholder sold as many as 1.06 million shares, or a 2.1 percent stake, in Remy at 78.50 euros to 79.50 euros each.

FTSE 100 6,610.98 -23.38 -0.35%

CAC 40 3,917.43 -10.36 -0.26%

DAX 8,309.68 -27.41 -0.33%