Miners lead European losses
Defensive stocks remain supported
Virgin Money surges on results

Nov 21 Reuters European shares slipped on Monday, with economically sensitive sectors like mining and industrials leading the losses on worries about the impact of surging COVID19 cases in China.

The panEuropean STOXX 600 slipped 0.1 after the index marked its fifth straight weekly gain on Friday.

Asian stocks closed sharply lower on Monday as investors fretted about the economic fallout from fresh COVID19 restrictions in China, with Beijing39;s most populous district urging residents to stay at home as COVID19 cases rose.

The worsening situation is coming at a time of fears of flu outbreaks, which is putting fresh pressure on commodity stocks, with mining companies feeling more pain in trading today, said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

Mining, travel leisure, and industrial goods and services fell between 0.5 and 1.1, leading losses among European sectors.

Defensive sectors such as healthcare and utilities, which are typically preferred during times of economic uncertainty, rose and helped limit broader market losses.

The benchmark STOXX 600 has recovered nearly 13 since hitting this year39;s trough in September on betterthanexpected earnings reports and hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve will shift to smaller rate hikes.

While comments from European Central Bank officials were mixed last week, ECB chief economist…