bir yıl önce

Fear of financial contagion persists after top German bank's shares slump

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's assurance that "there is no reason to be concerned" fails to assure the financial market sending many European bank shares tumbling as the week comes to a close.

Reuters

City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta says that the decision of central banks to continue hiking rates this week has made the outlook "increasingly shaky", adding that Deutsche Bank has come under the spotlight "as a possible target for contagion risk."

Bank shares have tumbled, jolting stock markets as fears about the health of the financial sector resurfaced, with Deutsche Bank now in the eye of the storm.

German lender Deutsche Bank's shares nosedived by as much as 14 percent on Friday as the cost of insuring against the bank defaulting on its debt spiked. It closed 8.5 percent lower.

Other big European banks also fell on Friday, including a 5.5 percent drop for Germany’s Commerzbank, a 5.3 percent fall for France’s BNP Paribas and a 3.5 percent loss for UBS.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said after an EU summit that "there is no reason to be concerned" about Deutsche Bank as the lender is "very profitable".

Markets had rallied earlier this week after financial authorities took steps aimed at preventing contagion from the collapse of US regional lenders earlier this month.

But sentiment has soured following decisions by central banks in the United States, Britain and Switzerland to hike interest rates despite concerns about the impact of the monetary tightening on banks.

Fears of contagion led to the takeover of embattled Swiss bank Credit Suisse by domestic rival UBS on Sunday.

The focus now turned to Deutsche, another major European lender that returned to financial health last year following a major restructuring after years of problems.

Another turbulent week

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde told EU leaders that the single currency area's banking sector is "resilient because it has strong capital and liquidity positions", according to an EU official.

But City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta told AFP news agency that the selloff in bank shares has highlighted "just how fragile sentiment is towards the sector".

"As central banks continued hiking rates this week the outlook is looking increasingly shaky," she told AFP, adding that "Deutsche Bank has come under the spotlight as a possible target for contagion risk."

European stock markets finished another turbulent week sharply lower, with London down 1.3 percent while Frankfurt and Paris both shed around 1.7 percent.

Wall Street's three main indices opened lower but the Dow and S&P 500 steadied around lunchtime.

Shares in US financial giant JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup were down around two percent while Bank of America fell 0.5 percent.

UK bank Standard Chartered also tanked by more than six percent in London while Barclays was down around four percent.