Europe's main stock markets lost ground on Friday, with sentiment hit by the fatal Nice truck attack, offsetting Wall Street records and positive Chinese data.

Airlines stocks slid after a gunman on Thursday smashed a truck into a crowd in the French resort of Nice, killing at least 84 people -- in what President Francois Hollande declared a "terrorist" attack.

Accor Hotels led losers on the Paris market in shedding 4 percent.

Around 1345 GMT on Friday, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index had shed 0.3 percent to 6,636.89 points compared with the close on Thursday.

British no-frills airline EasyJet was among the biggest fallers with its share price off 2.4 percent mid-afternoon.

In the eurozone, Frankfurt's DAX 30 slipped 0.5 percent and the Paris CAC 40 shed 0.6 percent in value.

"There was an understandably muted tone to the markets... the latest (of) tragedies in France making everything seem a bit frivolous," said Connor Campbell, an analyst at Spreadex trading group.

Hollande declared three days of mourning after the assault, as shellshocked France found itself again mourning its dead after attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015 and the November 2015 massacre in Paris.

Thursday's attack targeted France's national holiday Bastille Day that is held each year on July 14.

Elsewhere, Wall Street opened into fresh record territory on strong June retail sales data, with the Dow Jones index adding 0.2 percent to 18,547.71 points. The tech-rich Nasdaq and the broad-based S&P 500 both also rose 0.2 percent.

US retail sales jumped 0.6 percent, exceeding expectations, bolstered by strong gains in building materials and garden supplies and most categories.

The lack of impact on US equities after the Nice attack shows how "senseless acts of terrorism don't resonate fully in capital markets unless they are perceived to have a material economic impact," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

Asian stock markets climbed for a fifth-straight session and after China released data showing the economy grew more than expected in the second quarter.