By Pranav Kashyap

(Reuters) -European shares were largely flat on Friday, navigating through mildly turbulent trading, as investors were cautious ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s eagerly-awaited speech later in the day.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.1% to 516.37 at 0820 GMT.

ALL EYES ON POWELL’S SPEECH

The “fear gauge” Euro STOXX volatility index saw an uptick this week and was last at 15.88 points.

Despite three Fed speakers on Thursday alluding to a rate cut in September, and voicing support for a “slow and methodical” approach, investors were jittery, wary of any unexpected twists at Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming, due at 1400 GMT.

Overnight, Wall Street also lost ground, with all three major indexes losing between 0.4% and 1.67%. [.N]

“Powell never gives out free information just for the sake of it. We’ll definitely get confirmation over a rate cut today, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he still comes off as pretty reluctant,” Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com said.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey is also scheduled to speak at the symposium later in the day.

London’s FTSE was up 0.2%.

STOXX 600 LAGS S&P500

The continent-wide index was set to log a 1% gain this week and also on course for a three-week winning streak, a move last seen nearly five months ago.

However, the benchmark has lagged its American counterpart, the S&P 500, in terms of yearly performance.

“There’s still momentum in the U.S. because we still haven’t seen that rate cut. But for Europe, we’ve already seen the European Central Bank cut rates and earnings have started to weaken. What else is there to drive momentum? That’s where investors are at the moment,” Capital.com’s Hathorn said.

Europe’s oil and gas sub-index rose 0.5% on the day as oil prices gained. [O/R]

The technology sector was the biggest weight on the STOXX 600, dropping 0.8%.

Swiss food group Nestle lost 1.5% after announcing it would replace CEO Mark Schneider with company veteran Laurent Freixe.

Melrose Industries declined 5.3% after UBS downgraded the rating on the aerospace supplier to “sell” from “buy”.

(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Mrigank Dhaniwala)

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