European shares fell on Thursday, led lower by banks and miners, as a flurry of gloomy economic data raised worries about a deep global recession and weak sales by the world's top retailer Wal-Mart (WMT.N) hurt sentiment.
The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares provisionally ended down 0.7 percent at 871.78 points after falling as low as 859.83. It plunged about 45 percent in 2008.
Wal-Mart posted weak December same-store sales and cut its quarterly earnings forecast as several other retailers also warned that earnings would be worse than expected in the fourth quarter.
"The markets are not completely stupid in worrying about the risk of a prolonged slump because there is a lot of deleverage coming through from the banking sector," said Andrew Bell, head of research at Rensburg Sheppards.
The banking sector took the most points off the index, with Commerzbank (CBKG.DE) falling 10.9 percent, Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) slipping 5.7 percent, Standard Chartered (STAN.L) down 6.5 percent and DT Postbank (DPBGn.DE) falling 8.8 percent.
Miners also slipped, tracking metal prices that fell on concerns about slowing demand for basic raw materials. BHP Billiton (BLT.L), Anglo American (AAL.L), Vedanta Resources (VED.L), Xstrata (XTA.L) and Rio Tinto (RIO.L) fell between 3.1 and 6 percent. (Reporting by Atul Prakash, editing by Will Waterman)
