Markets

European stocks fall sharply at open

Published Updated

London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares sank 1.43 percent to 4,994.50 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 dived 1.31 percent to 5,128.56 points and in Paris the CAC 40 slid 1.97 percent to 2,754.82 points.

Other markets showed similar losses, with Madrid down 1.88 percent and Milan off 1.6 percent after another bad day in Asia.

Investors shrugged off talk that the eurozone was drawing up plans to expand its bailout fund for troubled eurozone nations.

"The G20 meeting over the weekend has failed to provide further clarity over resolving the eurozone debt crisis and may even have served to increase uncertainty further," said economist Lee Hardman at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in London.

"A timely and effective plan which attempts to get a grip on the escalating eurozone sovereign debt crisis is required which would help reassure investors that the escalating crisis is not spiralling out of control."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011