European stocks slump on China fears

European stocks slump on China fears

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.

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