European stocks slumped Monday, declining on fears over China’s struggling property sector as well as the Chinese effort to rein in commodity prices.
The continued rout in iron-ore futures sent miners including Anglo American AAL, 0.83% and Rio Tinto RIO, 1.67% sharply lower, as worries about the world’s second-largest economy mounted with questions surrounding the ability of property developer China Evergrande 3333, -0.44% to make two interest payments this week.
“The big question is whether Evergrande’s problems will cause a contagion to other companies/sectors in China and hit growth there,” said Marshall Gittler, head of investment research at BDSwiss Holding.
The Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, 1.07% fell 1.8% to 453.52, as banks including Deutsche Bank DBK, 0.96% and Societe Generale GLE, 0.88% also traded sharply lower.
Of the major regional indexes, the German DAX DAX, 1.42% skidded 2.2%, the French CAC 40 PX1, 1.35% slumped 2.4% and the U.K. FTSE 100 UKX, 1.08% slumped 1.5%.
The Hang Seng HSI, +0.51% dropped more than 3% with markets in Japan, South Korea and China closed for holidays, and U.S. stock futures ES00, 0.90% NQ00, 0.81% pointed to a downbeat start on Wall Street.
The biggest Stoxx 600 faller was Prudential PLC PRU, 2.15%, which fell 6% after announcing it will sell up to 131 million shares.
The biggest Stoxx 600 gainer was Deutsche Lufthansa LHA, 3.55%, which rose 4% after announcing a €2.1 billion stock sale to repay its bailout.