European equities mostly slid Friday as investors fretted over this weekend's referendum in Crimea on the peninsula's bid to break away from Ukraine and join Russia.
A broker monitors market movements as a television highlights a 'Markets Crisis' at the BGC Partners firm in London, on August 5, 2011
The downbeat performance capped a weak of losses as markets were spooked also by mounting worries over an economic slowdown in China.
London's FTSE 100 slid 0.40 percent to 6,527.89 points and in Paris the CAC 40 shed 0.80 percent to 4,216.37, but the Dax 30 in Frankfurt gained 0.43 percent to 9,056.41 points.
Traders scurried into lower-risk assets such as gold and the yen due to growing economic uncertainty and geopolitical fears.
Haven investment gold hit a six-month high at $1,388.11 per ounce.
"European markets mostly slipped again today following yesterday’s huge drop-off as traders position themselves cautiously into the weekend’s vote in Crimea," said analyst Jasper Lawler at CMC Markets UK.
The United States and Russia failed in 11th-hour diplomacy on Friday to resolve a Cold-War-style crisis sparked by Moscow's military intervention in Crimea and the Ukrainian peninsula's weekend referendum on joining Kremlin rule.
US Secretary of State John Kerry met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in London with few hopes that Sunday's Moscow-backed referendum in the strategic Black Sea peninsula that has been seized by Kremlin troops could be averted or delayed.
But US officials indicated that they still expected Moscow to avoid taking the extra step of actually annexing the region of two million mostly Russian speakers in a move that would escalate the biggest East-West showdown since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.
Asian equities also sank further on Friday, after a heavy sell-off in New York and Europe in reaction to another batch of poor Chinese data and flaring Ukraine tensions.
Tokyo slumped 3.30 percent, Seoul slid 0.75 percent, and Sydney shed 1.54 percent.
Shanghai lost 0.73 percent while Hong Kong closed 1.00 percent lower.
US stocks rose meanwhile, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average edging up 0.5 percent to 16,117.36 points in midday trade.
The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.14 percent to 1,848.84, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.07 percent to 4,263.47.
Meanwhile, in foreign exchange deals on Friday, the European single currency climbed to $1.3917 from $1.3867 late on Thursday in New York. The dollar dipped to 101.48 yen from 101.78 yen.
- Sanctions fears hit markets -
Stocks had slumped Thursday on talk of Europe and the US implementing tough sanctions against Russia.
"As the Russian Bear casts its shadow over markets and plays chess with investors it is no wonder they have been heading to safe havens," said Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at stockbroker Interactive Investor.
Ukraine remains a tinderbox as more than 8,000 Russian troops staged drills near its eastern border while NATO and US reconnaissance craft and fighters patrolled the skies of the ex-Soviet state's EU neighbours to the west.
In Moscow, stocks plunged to a four-year low on Friday as jittery investors dumped their holdings ahead of the referendum.
The capital's two main indices, fell by more than 5.0 percent at one point to levels unseen since mid-2009, but later recovered somewhat. The MICEX closed down 0.89 percent, while the RTS finished 1.43 percent lower.
The ruble fell to 51.07 against the euro, from 50.77 on Thursday, approaching the record low of 51.20 set last week.
"The outcome of this weekend’s referendum on Crimea's future will... be critical," said ING economist James Knightley.
"The probable series of US and EU sanctions and counter-sanctions in the event of a full Crimean breakaway would weaken global growth and badly sap risk sentiment."
In corporate news, French consortium Vivendi said Friday it was entering exclusive negotiations with Numericable to sell the cable operator its telecoms unit SFR.
Shares in Numericable soared more than 20 percent after the announcement, and ended the day with a gain of 11.47 percent to 29.50 euros.
Vivendi's shares edged up 0.15 percent to 19.90 euros.