LONDON, Sept 11: European stock markets fell heavily on Monday, mirroring deep losses in Asia, as weaker commodities prices dragged down heavyweight mining and oil companies, dealers said.

London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares dropped 0.94 per cent to 5,824.10 points, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 shed 0.92 per cent to 5,741.74 points and in Paris the CAC 40 index tumbled 0.82 per cent to 5,032.11.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares decreased 0.98 per cent to 3,713.35 points.

The euro stood at 1.2708 dollars.

Japanese share prices slumped to a two-week low point on Monday, back under 16,000 points after a much bigger-than-expected plunge in a key gauge of corporate capital investment rattled sentiment, dealers said.

Wall Street shares rebounded on Friday from two days of selling, as a sharp drop in crude oil prices helped investors to shrug off jitters about inflation and an economic slowdown.

On Monday in London, the FTSE 100 was shaken by heavy losses to resources groups. Global mining giant Anglo American plunged 4.13 per cent to 2,135 pence and Anglo-Australian peer BHP Billiton dived 4.07 per cent to 942 pence on profit-taking.

Oil groups were affected also, as crude futures continued to trade at five-month low points on easing supply concerns. Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy slumped 4.05 per cent to 1,920 pence and in Paris Total shed 2.12 per cent to 49.92 euros.

Elsewhere in the French capital, EADS edged up 0.09 per cent to 22.44 euros after it was revealed that the Russian state bank Vneshtorgbank has accumulated a stake of more than five per cent stake in the European Aeronautic Defence and Space company.

At the end of August, Russian newspaper reports had said that Vneshtorgbank had spent about one billion dollars (788 million euros) buying the stock in EADS.

The emergence of a new shareholder in EADS would however not change the current pact between the group’s main shareholders, France and Germany, an EADS spokesman said on Monday.

In earlier Asian trading, the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s benchmark Nikkei-225 index tumbled 1.78 per cent to 15,794.38, the weakest closing level since August 28.

Investors largely overlooked a modest upward revision to Japan’s second-quarter economic growth and instead focused on the 16.7 per cent month-on-month drop in core private-sector machinery orders in July.

Hong Kong’s key Hang Seng Index ended down 1.15 per cent at 16,948.59 points, on profit-taking in property stocks and with Tokyo’s sharp losses weighing on investor sentiment, dealers said.

In New York on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.54 per cent to close at 11,392.11 points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite added 0.49 per cent to 2,165.79 points.

The broad-market Standard and Poor’s 500 index increased 0.38 per cent to 1,298.92.—AFP