European shares open lower, FTSE leads losses

European shares opened lower on Tuesday as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the European Central Bank's monetary policy meeting later this week.

Weak factory data from China that showed prices shrunk in August at their fastest pace in three years dented investor sentiment already dulled by a weak handover from Wall Street overnight. The pan-European stocks benchmark index STOXX 600 was down 0.2% by 0706 GMT and looked to extend losses to a second day.

China-sensitive German stocks fell 0.1%, while London stocks slipped 0.4% ahead of July unemployment report due later in the session.

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