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Major European indices slide

20 January 2009 08:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev - APA-Economics. European stocks fell during the U.S. break for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, with Royal Bank of Scotland Group leading a decline in banks as investors fretted that the latest moves to support the sector won’t be enough to get banks lending again, Wall Street Journal reported.
U.S. markets resume trading today with regular trading hours. (Markets traditionally do not have abbreviated hours on Inauguration Day.)
On Monday, the pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index fell 1.7% to 189.72. The U.K. FTSE 100 index slid 0.9% to 4108.47, the German DAX 30 index declined 1.2% to 4316.14, and the French CAC-40 index dropped 0.9% to 2989.69.
Royal Bank of Scotland sank 67% in London, with investors stunned by news that the lender expects an annual loss of as much as Â£28 billion ($41.3 billion)
Lloyds Banking Group slid 34% on the first day of trading after the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS. Allied Irish Banks fell 58% in London. Last week, the Irish government effectively nationalized Irish lender Anglo Irish Bank. Credit Suisse dropped 6.7% and HSBC Holdings fell 6.5%.
Deutsche Bank slid 11%. Morgan Stanley reiterated its "underweight" stance on the stock and said it believes the lender still needs to reduce leverage, with material risk of dilution.
SociÃ©tÃ© GÃ©nÃ©rale fell 10%. Over the weekend, an Italian newspaper reported that the French bank isn’t considering mergers in Europe.
Stora-Enso shares fell 6.9% in Stockholm after the paper and wood producer said it is starting negotiations to lay off about 5,000 of its employees.