European shares fall further as trade fears mount

MILAN, March 23 (Reuters) - European shares fell on Fridaywith tech, basic resources stocks and banks bearing the brunt ofa wide sell-off triggered by worries that U.S. tariffs onimports from China could escalate into a fully-blown trade war.

All sectors were trading in negative territory, sendingpan-regional STOXX 600 benchmark index down 1.1 percentto its lowest level since February 2017.

Euro zone indexes including the export-sensitive DAXalso fell more than 1 percent but remained above earlyMarch lows, while the FTSE dipped 0.5 percent to fresh15-month lows.

All eyes were on the response from China, which urged theUnited States on Friday to "pull back from the brink", andunveiled its own plans to impose tariffs on up to $3 billion ofU.S. imports.

"We do not expect a full-blown trade war, but the risk ofescalation may lead to bouts of risk aversion in financialmarkets," said Credit Suisse in its investment daily.

In the corporate arena, Indivior plunged 19 percentfollowing a U.S. court ruling against the maker of opioidaddiction treatment Suboxone. The UK firm said it intended toappeal the ruling in favour of generic competitor Alvogen.

Among the few gainers, GSK rose 3 percent after itpulled out of the bidding war for Pfizer's consumer healthbusiness <PFE.N,> following in the footsteps of ReckittBenckiser earlier this week.(Reporting by Danilo Masoni, Editing by Helen Reid)