FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - In a weak chemicals sector across Europe, major industry stocks from Germany's export-heavy economy came under particular pressure after dismal economic data from China. The "engine of the global economy" comes only slowly on the Corona low, as underlined by weak industrial data.

In the Dax, Covestro slid by 4.3 percent as the tail light, BASF by 1.7 percent. Lanxess, Evonik and Wacker Chemie in the MDax were down between 2.5 and 3.3 percent.

Other sectors particularly dependent on the global economy, such as raw materials and metals, were also under pressure, as reflected in Aurubis and Thyssenkrupp in Germany with losses of up to 1.9 percent.

Chinese industrial output rose 3.5 percent in May, according to government data released Thursday, as economists had expected. But that meant growth weakened from the previous month. The 12.7 percent rise in retail sales was also lower than in April and missed experts' expectations to boot. The gains should also be seen in the context that a year ago, the Chinese government's strict Corona measures were still weighing on the economy.

"The bulk of the activity data can be summed up in one word: Disappointing," ING Bank experts wrote in the morning. They said retail sales had still been a functioning engine in China so far. "And although the annual growth rate looks impressive at first glance, this corresponds to a seasonally adjusted decline in sales compared to the previous month and shows that the reopening momentum is weakening," ING experts said.

In the eyes of market observer Derren Nathan from asset manager Hargreaves Lansdown, the picture on the global markets is currently clouding over again. In addition to the interest rate pause of the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is related to recession concerns, he also referred to the need for the Chinese central bank to support the local economy with monetary policy easing./tih/mis