European shares drop as oil price resumes slide, banks down

LONDON/MILAN: European shares fell on Monday, with oil and gas companies losing ground as an oil price rally fizzled out and steep falls in Spanish and Italian lenders hitting banking stocks.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which rose 3 percent on Friday to mark its first weekly gain for 2016, slipped 0.7 percent by 1523 GMT. The FTSEurofirst is down around 8 percent since the start of 2016.

The euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index and Germany's DAX were down 0.7 and 0.4 percent respectively, with the DAX more than 20 percent below a record high reached last April.

Oil prices slid after having rallied 10 percent on Friday. This in turn pushed down the shares of companies such as BP , Total and Eni.

World stock markets have fallen since the start of 2016, partly due to signs of a slowdown in China, the world's second-biggest economy and a major consumer of oil and metals.

The Chinese situation has impacted oil prices, along with concerns about oversupply in the oil market.

Several investors and analysts said the situation remained volatile, with JP Morgan's global equity strategist Mislav Matejka reiterating his recommendation to sell out on any stock market rebound, such as the one on Friday.

"We reiterate our stance since November that the key strategy for the foreseeable future is to sell these rallies," he said.

Pierre de Saab, fund manager at Dominice & Co, also warned that stock markets could fall further this year, given the signs of weakness in the global economy.

However, Greek shares managed to outperform.

Athens' benchmark ATG equity index, which fell around 30 percent in 2015 due to persistent concerns over Greece's debt problems, rose 0.10 percent after Standard & Poor's upgraded its rating on Greece late on Friday.

Jyske Bank also rose 3.5 percent after the Danish bank forecast making an annual profit.

European banks were however the steepest sector faller with a decline of 2.8 percent. Italian lenders were hit by continued uncertainty over how to solve the country's bad loans problems while Spanish lenders were under pressure because of difficulties in forming a new government after inconclusive elections last year.