European Shares Decline On Slowdown Fears

(RTTNews) - European stocks fell for a second straight session on Friday, with banks coming under selling pressure once again on a Bloomberg report that Credit Suisse Group and UBS Group AG are among the banks under scrutiny in a U.S. Justice Department probe for potentially helping Russian oligarchs evade sanctions.

Miners and banks also followed suit on worries that the banking crisis may weigh on economic growth.

The pan European STOXX 600 was down 0.9 percent at 442.15 after declining 0.2 percent on Thursday.

The German DAX and France's CAC 40 both fell around 1.1 percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 tumbled 1.5 percent.

Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International declined 3.4 percent on a Reuters report that the European Central Bank is pressing the bank to unwind its highly profitable business in Russia.

Deutsche Bank plummeted 8.6 percent to extend declines for a third day after a jump in default insurance costs.

Credit Suisse shares were down 6 percent and UBS lost 5.5 percent.

Miners Anglo American, Antofagasta and Glencore fell more than 2 percent each in London on growth worries.

Smiths Group rose over 1 percent. The industrial technology company upgraded its annual forecasts after reporting a 27 percent jump in first-half profit.

Pub group JD Wetherspoon soared 6 percent on posting turnaround results in its first half.

TUI Group gave up 5.7 percent after the travel group launched a €1.8 billion ($2 billion) capital increase to repay pandemic state aid and strengthen its balance sheet.

German real estate group Deutsche Wohnen fell more than 2 percent after it reported a loss for fiscal 2022 of 445.7 million euros compared to profit of 919.0 million euros, prior year.

In economic releases, the S&P Global Eurozone PMI Composite rose to 54.1 in March vs. 51.9 estimated and 52.0 previous.

U.K. retailers enjoyed a stronger-than-expected month in February, while a measure of consumer confidence climbed slightly in March, separate reports showed earlier today.