European shares fell early
European shares fell early on Thursday, weighed down by financial stocks after Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) posted a big loss and insurer Swiss Re (RUKN.VX) slumped on a large writedown.
By 0810 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top shares was down 2 percent at 794.82 points. Deutsche Bank lost 6.7 percent after the group posted at 5.7 billion euros pre-tax loss for 2008 and predicted a bleak future for the global economy and its industry.
Swiss Re wrote down 6 billion Swiss francs in toxic assets and posted a 2008 net loss of 1 billion franc net loss, sending its shares down 18 percent.
Spain's biggest bank Santander (SAN.MC) fell 1.6 percent after it posted a 21.5 percent rise in net interest revenue without dividends to 18.1 billion euros ($23.59 billion), underpinned by robust recurrent earnings from its core retail banking business.
"Santander investors are looking to see what level of transparency there is on Spanish property losses," saidJustin Urquhart Stewart, director at Seven Investment Management.
However, British gas producer BG Group (BG.L) gained 3.9 percent as it said net profit, excluding one-off items, beat forecasts with a 25 percent jump in the fourth quarter compared with the same period of 2007, and gave a buoyant outlook for growth. [ID:nL5563830]
Later in the session investors will eye rate decisions from the European Central Bank which is expected to keep interest rates on hold and the Bank of England which looks set to cut record low interest rates by at least another 50 basis points.---By Joanne Frearson, reuters.com
