LONDON, Nov 13: European stocks dropped on Tuesday in the wake of further losses in Asia and on Wall Street overnight caused by fears of more bad news from banks exposed to the US credit crisis, dealers said.

In morning trade, London’s FTSE 100 index of leading companies fell 0.33 per cent to 6,317.30 points.

Frankfurt’s DAX 30 lost 0.50 percent to 7,767.97 points and in Paris the CAC 40 shed 0.26 per cent to reach 5,521.34.

The European single currency stood at 1.4576 dollars.

The market is not out of the woods yet, said Alex Tang, head of research at Core Pacific Yamaichi. “Sentiment is deteriorating because of the subprime crisis.”US giants Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley have each reported hefty losses on securities backed by subprime mortgages, or loans to risky borrowers, and there are fears more banks will be reporting troubles ahead.

But stronger-than-expected Japanese economic growth figures for the third quarter helped to limit the losses, with the Nikkei managing to remain above the key 15,000 points level, they added.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange’s benchmark Nikkei-225 index fell 0.46 per cent to 15,126.63, the lowest level since July 26, 2006.

The subprime crisis has led to cautious lending between banks, creating a credit squeeze.

Elsewhere in Asia, Singapore share prices closed down 1.02 per cent and Thai stocks finished the day 0.50-per cent lower

Indian stocks meanwhile rose 1.59 per cent to break six straight days of declines as investors sought bargains among blue-chip companies.

The US stock markets had finished lower Monday as investor unease continued to weigh on the Dow Jones Industrial Average which fell below 13,000 points for the first time since mid-August.

A plunge of 58 per cent in shares of online broker ETrade highlighted skittishness on Wall Street about the finance sector. —AFP