Major European equity indexes opened flat to lower on Friday as a gloomier economic picture in Europe and a selloff on Wall Street dented risk appetite, though the caution was balanced by hopes for renewed deal-making activity.

French industrial and telecoms conglomerate Bouygues was a sharp outperformer, rising 3.7 per cent on speculation about a possible tie-up with Orange, whose shares rose 1.2 percent.

At 0708 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 0.1 per cent at 1,356.89 points, while France's CAC was up 0.1 per cent after recording its steepest daily fall since late March on Thursday on the back of disappointing GDP data.

"Markets are vulnerable because growth expectations are a little bit too high," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.