By DPA
Frankfurt : European shares fell sharply Monday as fears grew that the giant US economy was teetering on the edge of recession.
Stocks on European bourses cascaded down 2.0 percent or more Monday after big falls across Asia in the wake of concerns about the economic fallout from the US mortgage market crisis.
While the European blue-chip Stoxx 50 was down 2.2 percent at 3,278 points as trading got underway Monday, national bourses across Europe posted even bigger falls with the Frankfurt DAX dropping 2.8 percent and Paris’ CAC index plunging 3.0 percent as finance stocks lead the market falls.
Europe’s premier stock market in London was down 2.25 percent with European markets picking up on the gloomy mood prevailing among investors in Asia.
While Japan’s Nikkei index ended a grim trading day down 3.86 percent, Hong Kong dropped 5.49 percent with Shanghai losing about 5.0 percent.
Worries about the outlook for the US economy also helped to again undercut oil prices, which slipped 0.9 percent to below $90 a barrel in early trading Monday.
In addition, deepening concerns about the impact on the European economy of a sharp slowdown in the US, the world’s biggest economy, undercut the euro, which edged down 0.4 percent to below $1.45 in early trading.
Emerging European stock markets faired a little better than their more established counterparts in Western Europe. However, the Moscow bourse had lost more than 3.0 percent as Monday’s trading began.