European shares fall as losses in financials, banks weigh

European shares fell on Wednesday tracking overnight declines on Wall Street, with financials and bank stocks leading early declines, though gains in some defence-related stocks helped limit losses.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.5% at 552.5 points, as of 0714 GMT. Most regional bourses also ticked lower, with the Italian benchmark at the helm of losses.

Heavyweight banks dropped 0.9%, with Germany's Deutsche Bank, UK's Barclays, France's Societe Generale and Denmark's Sydbank all down more than 1% each.


The subindex for financial services also dipped 1.1%.

An index tracking defence stocks gained 0.8% after U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed Ukraine could retake all its land occupied by Russia and that Kyiv should act now.

Wall Street's main indexes fell overnight as investors parsed through Fed Chair Jerome Powell's remarks, which gave little indication about the future path of interest rates.

Among other early movers, Germany's Lanxess fell 5.2% after Deutsche Bank downgraded its rating on the speciality chemicals maker to "hold" from "buy".