By Carla Mozee and Victor Reklaitis, MarketWatch
Bloomberg
Stocks in Europe slipped Monday, with losses among Italian banks helping to hand the pan-European benchmark its first loss in four sessions.
Stoxx Europe 600 /zigman2/quotes/210599654/delayed XX:SXXP -0.15% dropped 0.7% to end at 329.78.
Italy’s Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA /zigman2/quotes/202470451/delayed IT:BMPS +0.14% closed down 14%. The move came after a report that the European Central Bank is pushing the lender to draft a new plan aimed at reducing non-performing loans.
Other Italian bank shares were lower, with Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna /zigman2/quotes/200216094/delayed IT:BPE -0.23% down 6.7%, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA /zigman2/quotes/206161760/delayed IT:ISP -0.48% off 3% and Banca Popolare di Milano SpA lower by 1.4%.
See: More pain for Italian bank shares as ECB calls on lender to reduce bad loans
And read: Brexit puts onus on central banks to fix financial jitters
The Stoxx 600 on Friday ended 0.7% higher, and finished the week up 3.2% to break a four-week string of declines.
Equities have been clawing back Brexit-fueled losses, as the U.K. government has yet to start formal talks about its terms in exiting the European Union after last month’s referendum.
Still, in the face of such Brexit-related uncertainty, shareholders in the London Stock Exchange Group PLC on Monday voted to OK the proposed merger with Deutsche Boerse AG /zigman2/quotes/205502669/delayed DE:DB1 +1.34% . LSE shares finished down 1.2%, and Deutsche Börse shares also shed 1.2%.
Brexit: Thousands in London protest over ‘leave’’ vote
Thousands of European Union supporters marched through the streets of London on Saturday to protest over the United Kingdom's vote to leave the 28-nation bloc.
Indexes: Germany’s DAX 30 /zigman2/quotes/210597999/delayed DX:DAX -0.55% fell 0.7% to 9,709.09, and the U.K’s FTSE 100 /zigman2/quotes/210598409/delayed UK:UKX +0.01% was lower by 0.8% at 6,522.26.
France’s CAC 40 /zigman2/quotes/210597958/delayed FR:PX1 -0.18% lost 0.9% at 4,234.86, while Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 1.7% to 16,012.31.
Movers: Volkswagen AG /zigman2/quotes/204309985/delayed DE:VOW3 +0.69% was down 2% as the German auto maker rejected demands that it pay compensation to European car owners who bought tainted diesel vehicles.
Moneysupermarket.com Group PLC /zigman2/quotes/201535721/delayed UK:MONY -2.23% shares dropped 11% as Barclays cut its rating on the price comparison website company to equalweight and cut its view on 2017 estimated per-share earnings by 8%.
“We believe Moneysupermarket offers attractive structural growth in the medium term. But our economists now expect a U.K. recession in 2017, and there is some cyclical exposure, which makes us cautious,” said Barclays.
Marks & Spencer Group PLC /zigman2/quotes/206225481/delayed UK:MKS -0.71% /zigman2/quotes/205629926/delayed MAKSY +1.73% fell 5.1% following a ratings downgrade on the retailer to hold from buy at Investec.
Among the gainers, RWE AG /zigman2/quotes/203773154/delayed DE:RWE +1.73% shares rose 3.5% as the German utility signed a deal for Qatargas to deliver up to 1.1 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas a year to RWE Supply & Trading in northwest Europe. Financial terms of the 7 1/2-year deal weren’t disclosed.
Shares in miner Fresnillo PLC /zigman2/quotes/201300065/delayed UK:FRES +3.40% rose 7.7%, tracking further gains in gold and silver prices.
Check out: Silver crushes even gold as it powers to 2-year high
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