European Shares Off Day's Lows

(RTTNews) - European stocks traded mixed on Monday, after having fallen sharply earlier in the session on concerns over a deepening banking crisis and an impending recession.

The pan European STOXX 600 was down 0.1 percent at 435.95 after hitting a low of 427.77 earlier in the day.

The German DAX traded marginally higher, reversing early losses. France's CAC 40 edged up 0.2 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was down 0.7 percent.

Banks Commerzbank, ING Groep, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale, HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered were down 3-5 percent.

Novartis edged up slightly after presenting new long-term data of Zolgensma demonstrating sustained durability up to 7.5 years post-dosing.

Precision measurement company Spectris was marginally higher in London after commencing the third tranche of a share repurchase program.

FirstGroup fell about 1 percent despite extending its current arrangements for the West Coast Rail partnership with the Department for Transport.

Oil & gas major BP Plc fell about 1 percent and Shell declined 1.7 percent as oil extended last week's losses on recession worries.

In economic releases, investors ignored preliminary data showing that Germany's producer price inflation eased for the fifth straight month in February to reach its lowest level in nearly one-and-a-half years amid a continued slowdown in energy prices.

The producer price index climbed 15.8 percent year-over-year in February, which was slower than the 17.6 percent rise in January, Destatis reported. Economists had forecast the price growth to ease to 14.5 percent.

Further, the latest inflation rate was the weakest since September 2021, when prices had risen 14.2 percent.

Traders await Eurozone trade data for January and ECB President Christine Lagarde's speech later in the day for further direction.