Apple shares extended their losses Friday, ending a miserable week for the California tech giant as it surrendered its position as the world's biggest company based on market value.

Apple ended down 2.36 percent at $439.88, giving it a market capitalization of $413 billion, while oil giant ExxonMobil rose 0.36 percent to $91.68 with a market cap of $418 billion to edge into first place.

Latin American and European leaders open a two-day summit in Chile Saturday to give a fresh impetus to efforts to seal a free trade agreement between their two blocs.

Attending the gathering are some 45 leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Cuban leader Raul Castro as well as European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena shareholders gave the green light on Friday to a key capital increase in an important step towards calming concerns raised over the health of the world's oldest bank raised by a derivatives scandal which has sparked a political row in Italy.

After seven hours of intense deliberations, general shareholders in Italy's third-largest bank voted to authorize a capital increase of 4.5 billion euros to help pay back loans, with another 2.0 billion euros on top of that for interest payments, if necessary.

Britain's economy shrank 0.3 percent in the final quarter of 2012, a year in which it recorded zero growth, official data revealed on Friday, placing the country on the brink of yet another recession.

British finance minister George Osborne said he was "determined to confront" the economic problems facing the country, which he claimed had been hit hard by the high debt inherited by the government and owing to eurozone strains.

Ukraine and the global oil giant Royal Dutch Shell signed Thursday a $10 billion shale gas production sharing agreement aimed at helping the ex-Soviet nation ease its dependence on Russia.

The deal was signed in the presence of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych by Shell CEO Peter Voser and Ukrainian Energy Minister Eduard Stavitsky on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, a gathering of the world's business and political elite.

Apple took a fresh bruising on Thursday after a gloomy forecast accompanying its record quarterly profits prompted pessimism over the tech giant's slowing growth trajectory.

Apple shares tumbled 12.35 percent to close at $450.50, extending their decline from record highs above $700 last year.

The Arab world takes center stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday with Jordan's King Abdullah II set to address global political and business leaders.

The premiers of Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia and the Palestinian Territories will discuss transformations in Arab countries, while U.S. Senator John McCain is taking part in a panel on the future of conflict-torn Syria.

Cyprus on Thursday signed licence agreements with Italy's ENI and South Korea's Kogas for exploratory drilling aimed at exploiting offshore oil and gas deposits.

Commerce Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis called it a "very significant step" for the recession-hit east Mediterranean island's future prosperity.

Spain announced Thursday that its unemployment rate surged to a modern-day record of 26 percent in the final quarter of 2012 as nearly six million people searched in vain for work in a biting recession.

The jobless rate climbed from a rate of 25.02 percent the previous quarter, reaching the highest level since Spain returned to democracy after the death in 1975 of General Francisco Franco.

British Prime Minister David Cameron faced a frosty reception from the global elite at the annual Davos meeting on Thursday after his vow to hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.

The World Economic Forum in the snowy Swiss ski resort will see top politicians and business leaders pursue talks on whether they have seen the back of the global financial crisis.