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European Stocks Fall

European stocks fell early on Monday, tracking losses on Wall Street as oil shares followed crude into the red and banks slipped

European Stocks Fall

European stocks fell early on Monday, tracking losses on Wall Street as oil shares followed crude into the red and banks slipped.

At 0821 GMT the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 0.4 percent at 855.86 points.

Oil and gas shares took the most points off the index, with BP , Royal Dutch Shell and Total losing between 0.9 and 1.5 percent as crude oil fell more than 2 percent to below $56 a barrel.

Among banks UBS was down 3.2 percent, while HSBC and BNP Paribas both lost 1 percent.

Deutsche Bank rose 0.7 percent after the bank's chief executive was quoted as saying in an interview to a German paper that Germany's largest bank will not need money from the state to survive the financial crisis.

Investors were also digesting data that showed Japan, the world's second-largest economy, has slipped into recession. Japan's economy shrank 0.1 percent in the third quarter for its second straight quarter of contraction.

Adding to the grim mood, the Confederation of British Industry said on Monday Britain will suffer its sharpest economic contraction in almost two decades next year and the number of people out of work could rise to nearly 3 million by 2010.

The Group of 20 world leaders agreed Saturday to a raft of fiscal and monetary steps to rescue the global economy, but it was left to individual governments to tailor their response to their particular circumstances.

"It's life after G20. There's not a lot it (G20) could do except come out with warm words and platitudes," said Justin Urquhart Stewart, investment director at Seven Investment Management.

"It's a day to miss, or a day to have a little respite from the turmoil. But it would take very little to send us off in another direction. It's as if we're in between Atlantic depressions," he added.

U.S. stocks lost ground on Friday after a record drop in monthly retail sales heightened worries that U.S. consumers' reluctance to spend will drag the economy into an even deeper downturn than initially expected.

Author: Jo Amey


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