By Eva Kuehnen
FRANKFURT, March 20 (Reuters) - European shares fell on
Thursday as a profit warning from Credit Suisse <CSGN.VX> kept
credit market woes firmly in the spotlight, while mining shares
fell on lower commodity prices.
Credit Suisse shares slid almost 9 percent and were the
strongest negative weight on the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300
index <> after the Swiss bank cautioned it was unlikely to
be profitable in the first quarter due to big debt writedowns.
By 0938 GMT, the benchmark index was down 0.6 percent at
1,222.91 points, having fallen to as low as 1,217.51 points
earlier in the session. It fell 0.9 percent on Wednesday, mainly
due to technology and telecom stocks.
"The market is still driven by uncertainty," said Britta
Paech, portfolio manager at M.M. Warburg. "We continue to battle
with the financial crisis and it'll stay that way for a while,"
she added.
Banks were the main decliners in Europe. The DJ Stoxx index
of European banking shares dropped 0.9 percent <.SX7P> with UBS
<UBSN.VX> down 4 percent, Societe Generale <SOGN.PA> down 3.5
percent and Deutsche Bank <DBKGn.DE> falling 1.7 percent.
German insurer Allianz <ALVG.DE> was the latest European
bluechip to voice a bearish outlook as a result of the global
financial market turmoil, saying it was now more difficult to
hit its targets for this year and next.
Allianz shares eased 0.4 percent.
With futures and options expiry seen to dominate trade until
midday, market players will focus on key U.S. data for further
clues on whether the financial crisis has filtered through to
the real economy.
Weekly jobless claims, due at 1230 GMT, leading indicators
and a March index of regional business activity from the Federal
Reserve Bank of Philadelphia both at 1400 GMT will round out the
economic week, ahead of the long Easter weekend.
U.S. and Asian stocks fell overnight, mainly on plunging
gold and oil prices, driving energy and mining shares lower.
This carried over to Europe, where Anglo American <AAL.L>
fell 4.7 percent, BHP Billiton <BLT.L> fell 2.9 percent and Rio
Tinto <RIO.L> eased 3.3 percent, while BP <BP.L> and Total
<TOTF.PA> each fell between 1.5 and 2 percent.
The weaker oil price <CLc1>, down 2.7 percent at $99.80 a
barrel at 0943 GMT, however lifted airline stocks with Ryanair
<RYA.I> up 5.9 percent, British Airways <BAY.L> up 1.6 percent
and Lufthansa <LHAG.DE> up 2 percent.
Around Europe, the UK's FTSE 100 index <> fell 0.8
percent, Germany's DAX index <> dropped 0.2 percent and
France's CAC 40 <> declined 0.6 percent.
Elsewhere, shares in Colonial <COL.MC> failed to open as
investors rushed to sell their shares and found virtually no
buyers after a partial takeover bid by Investment Corporation of
Dubai (ICD) for the Spanish property company failed.
Among major decliners, UCB <UCB.BR> shares dropped 6.6
percent after the Belgian pharmaceutical group said it was
recalling its Parkinson's drug Neupro in the United States and
some batches from Europe, prompting a review of its 2008
forecast.
On the upside, Rentokil <RTO.L> shares leapt as much as 26.5
percent after the services conglomerate says it had appointed
the team that led the turnaround of chemicals group ICI to head
its drive to recover from two profit warnings.
