MW: Europe stocks extend losses after Japan earthquake
By Barbara Kollmeyer
MADRID (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets pushed lower in late morning trading on Monday after an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 rattled northeastern Japan and triggered a tsunami warning for the Ibaraki prefecture. The Stoxx Europe 600 index (ST:STOXX600 280.59, -1.09, -0.39%) extended losses along with other regional markets, led by European auto stocks after a sector downgrade by Credit Suisse. The index fell 0.5% to 280.36, while the France CAC 40 index (FR:PX1 4,033, -29.29, -0.72%) fell 0.8% to 4,031.62 and the German DAX 30 index (DX:DAX 7,177, -39.73, -0.55%) fell 0.7% to 7,163.71. The FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 6,058, +1.87, +0.03%) was down 0.1% to 6,052.47, supported by gains for the banking sector, with Barclays PLC (UK:BARC 306.85, +9.75, +3.28%) (BCS 19.42, -0.01, -0.05%) up 3.3% and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (UK:RBS 44.47, +1.04, +2.40%) up 2.7% after the U.K. Independent Commission on Banking made public its recommendations for the industry.
