By Sarah Thompson Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Stocks fell in Europe and Asia for the fourth time in five days, led by financial companies and construction stocks, on concern recession in the U.K., Japan and U.S. will stifle profit growth. Santander SA, Spain's biggest bank, and BNP Paribas SA of France slipped more than 3 percent. HeidelbergCement AG tumbled 16 percent on concern the cement maker's owner may have to sell shares to help prop up an investment company. Mitsubishi Estate Co., Japan's largest developer by market value, slid 5.4 percent. The MSCI World Index lost 0.5 percent to 875.24 at 9:55 a.m. in London, extending this year's decline to 45 percent. Japan's economy unexpectedly shrank in the third quarter, entering the first recession since 2001, while Britain's biggest business lobby said the U.K. recession may be deeper than earlier predicted. ``We are not seeing any kind of recovery at all in the world economy,'' said Gianluca Tarolli, a Geneva-based equity strategist at Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie., which has the equivalent of $134 billion in assets under management. ``We are cautious and are underweight equities. We have a lot of concerns about growth overall in Europe.'' Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index declined 0.7 percent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index decreased 0.4 percent. Futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.6 percent. Gross domestic product in Japan, the world's second-largest economy, shrank an annualized 0.4 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with 0.1 percent growth predicted by economists. `Longer' Recession Santander, the Spanish bank that owns U.K. mortgage lender Abbey, lost 5.5 percent to 6.17 euros. BNP Paribas, France's biggest bank, dropped 3.6 percent to 45.105 euros. HBOS Plc, the U.K. bank that agreed to be bought by Lloyds TSB Group Plc, sank 4.3 percent to 82.8 pence. In the U.K., the economy will contract the most in almost three decades next year, the Confederation of British Industry, the nation's biggest business lobby, said. GDP will drop 1.7 percent in 2009, the most since 1980, the CBI predicted. The recession is ``likely to be deeper and longer lasting,'' according to CBI. U.K. house prices are falling at the fastest pace since at least 2002, Rightmove Plc said today. The average asking price for a home fell 7.1 percent from a year earlier, the most since records began six years ago, according to the country's most-used property Web site. The U.S. has entered a recession that will persist into next year, and economies around the world will follow suit, according to a survey of business economists. 2009 Contraction After growing 1.4 percent this year, the U.S. will contract 0.2 percent in 2009, according to the median estimate in a poll taken by the National Association for Business Economics. A majority of respondents said the U.K., euro area, Japan, Canada and Mexico are either now, or will soon be, in a recession. More than $30 trillion has been erased from the value of global equity markets this year as credit losses and writedowns totaled $964 billion in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. HeidelbergCement, Germany's biggest cement maker, tumbled 16 percent to 43 euros on concern its billionaire owner Adolf Merckle may have to sell shares to help prop up one of his investment companies. Tesco Plc lost 3.8 percent to 318.1 pence after JPMorgan said discount grocer Aldi Group poses a ``major threat'' and cut its recommendation to ``underweight'' from ``neutral.'' Bodycote Plc retreated 6 percent to 117 pence after the U.K. supplier of metal-strengthening services to Ford Motor Co. said it will halve a 260 million-pound ($383 million) payment to shareholders to pay off debt in light of financial market turmoil. United Internet United Internet AG tumbled 10 percent to 5.4 euros after Credit Suisse Group AG cut Germany's third-largest Web-access provider to ``underperform'' from ``neutral,'' citing ``weaker- than-expected'' third-quarter results. ``We believe risk to 2009 conensus could be greater given a worsening European economy and ongoing DSL (digital subscriber line) competition,'' the bank added. Parmalat SpA fell 5 percent to 1.22 euros after Italy's largest dairy company cut its annual profit and sales forecasts as pressure on incomes spur more shoppers to pass up its branded products for goods carrying food retailers' own names. Hennes & Mauritz AB climbed 1.4 percent to 256.50 kronor. Europe's second-largest clothing retailer said same-store sales fell 2 percent last month. That beat the average analyst estimate in a SME Direkt survey for a 2.6 percent decline. Total revenue rose 9 percent, excluding currency swings. To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Thompson in London at sthompson17@bloomberg.net.

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