LONDON: European stock markets tumbled at the start of trading Thursday following a heavy sell-off across Asia on heightened tensions over China's weak economy.
Shortly after the open at about 0815 GMT, the FTSE was down 1.9 percent at 5,957 points compared with Wednesday's close.
In the eurozone, Frankfurt's DAX 30 slumped 2.9 percent to 9,917.3 points and the Paris CAC 40 shed 2.4 percent to 4,373.8.
Chinese markets were suspended Thursday for the second day this week after they fell more than seven percent, leading an Asia-wide sell-off as Beijing weakened the value of the yuan currency by the most since August.
"Equity markets are continuing their steep losses... with investor sentiment being pressured by various factors," said Lukman Otunuga, research analyst at trading group FXTM.
"These include the resumption of fears over global growth following weak data from China... while increased geopolitical tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran and an unexpected nuclear test from North Korea have also encouraged investors to dodge away from riskier assets."
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.