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MILAN, Aug 25 (Reuters) - European shares fell in opening deals on Thursday with mining stocks leading losers for a second day in a row, while German market research firm GFK soared on merger and acquisition talk.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.8 percent by 0714 GMT, pulling back after reaching a new one-week high in the previous session.
The STOXX 600 Basic Resources index fell over 2 percent, making it the weakest sector on the day, led by a 3.7 percent drop in mining giant Glencore.
But GFK rose 7.4 percent after German weekly WirtschaftsWoche reported that its majority owner of the is looking at options including a merger or sale.
Ahold Delhaize rose 1.4 percent after the supermarket chain operator reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings growth. (Reporting by Danilo Masoni, Editing by Vikram Subhedar)
