European stocks gave up early gains on Friday and posted their biggest weekly decline in five months following supportive measures by regulators in the United States and Europe failed to quell fears of a global banking crisis.
The Stoxx 600 index closed down 1.3 percent, affected by the decline in the sub-indices of the banking, insurance and financial services sectors.
The banking sector index lost 2.6 percent, with HSBC, BNP Paribas, Allianz and UBS Group falling between 1 and 3 percent. The STOXX 600 index has lost nearly 4 percent this week, with banking stocks down 11.5 percent following the collapse of US and European banks left investors worried regarding the health of the financial sector.
