© Archyde.com. Screens display data from the German DAX index at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Friday. Photo by Archyde.com.
(Archyde.com) – European stock indices were hit by a massive sell-off in bank stocks on Friday as concerns about the stability of the financial sector escalated, as Deutsche Bank (ETR:) fell amid a jump in the cost of insuring the German bank’s debt against the risk of default to an all-time high. Its in more than four years.
The European index fell 1.4 percent, but recorded a weekly gain, supported by a large recovery earlier this week.
Deutsche Bank (ETR:) plunged 8.5 percent after a sharp jump in the cost of insuring against default risk.
Shares in UBS and Credit Suisse fell 3.6% and 5.2%, respectively, after Bloomberg reported that they were among the banks under scrutiny in the US Department of Justice’s investigation into whether financial services professionals helped Russian businessmen evade sanctions. .
The European banking index fell 3.8 percent, its third weekly decline, after the collapse of mid-sized US banks and turmoil at Credit Suisse highlighted the rising risks for banks in the wake of tightening monetary policy.
(Prepared by Mahmoud Salama for the Arabic Bulletin)