(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Milano, 20 mar - European shares closed lower, erasing early gains as volatility persisted in the Middle East.

Markets were rattled by reports of Iranian drone strikes on Kuwait's Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery and explosions in Dubai, following a defiant message from Iran's new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.

The escalation reversed earlier optimism, sending oil prices back up and fueling investor caution on a "quadruple witching" Friday.

On the data front, the eurozone current account surplus widened to 38 billion euros in January, while Italy posted a trade surplus of 1.089 billion euros. However, the eurozone's trade in goods deficit grew to 1.9 billion euros as exports fell 7.6%. Additionally, retail sales in France fell 0.3% in February, signaling softening consumer demand.

The London FTSE 100 closed down 1.45% at 9,917.60 points, the Frankfurt DAX fell 2.23% at 22,342.77 points, the Paris CAC 40 dropped 1.82% at 7,665.62 points, while in Milan the FTSE MIB lost 1.97% at 42.840.90 points, and in Madrid the IBEX 35.

closed 1.28% lower at 16,688.76 points.

(RADIOCOR) 20-03-26 17:58:56 (0489) 5 NNNN