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June 25 (Reuters) - European shares opened lower on

Tuesday, as industrial stocks came under pressure following

Airbus's dour update, while technology shares slumped tracking

an overnight selloff on Wall Street.

The continent-wide STOXX 600 fell 0.3% by 0707 GMT,

with Airbus, dropping 8.4%, being among the biggest

drag on the index, after Europe's largest aerospace group cut

industrial and financial targets, and took a hefty 900 million

euro ($965 million) charge for its troubled space activities.

The industrial goods and services sector dropped

1.5% early on.

The tech sub-index, which houses some of Europe's

biggest chip-related firms, dropped 1.5% tracking overnight

weakness in U.S. bellwether Nvidia ( NVDA ).

Germany's Merck shed 8.7%, after the drug maker

said it has stopped its trials for xevinapant in advanced head

and neck cancer.

The market's focus would remain on the first round of French

parliamentary elections later in the week, with Paris stock

market operator Euronext's CEO stating that the prospect of a

politically extreme party with little or no government

experience reaching power is worrying investors.