LONDON: Stress in the financial sector triggered by worries over global growth and the impact of negative interest rates drove European share prices to their lowest in 16 months on Monday and sent the cost of insuring bank debt soaring.

Concern over the health of the sector, which has prompted comparisons with the early days of the global financial crisis in 2008, pushed borrowing costs in the eurozone’s most indebted countries higher and sent investors to the relative safety of ultra-low-risk government debt.

The gloomy mood in stock markets looked likely to carry over into US trading hours, with index futures indicating Wall Street would ope n lower. Some US bank shares traded sharply lower in Frankfurt.

“The fundamental picture is clearly softening,” said Owen Callan, senior analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald.

“People are worried about the global economy and particularly now we are beginning to look at the banks.”

“You are seeing more and more people saying: is this 2008 again? Maybe not quite as severe, but do we need to be worrying about the banking sector and risk assets on a bigger level?”

The STOXX Europe 600 banking index fell 3.7pc, underperforming the broader market, which was down 2.7pc and the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, down 2.6pc.

Shares in Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, HSBC and BNP Paribas fell between 3.5pc and 6.7pc.

“Concerns are increasing that in a climate of negative interest rates and prolonged dovish monetary policy, banks’ profitability will be squeezed,” Jaisal Pastakia, investment manager at Heartwood Investment Management, said.

“A high level of unprofitable loans on banks’ balance sheets impacts the broader economy by stifling both domestic demand and bank lending growth,” Pastakia added.

The cost of insuring the subordinated debt of European financial firms rose 12pc on Monday to its highest since April 2013, Markit’s iTraxx index showed.

A similar index for financials’ senior debt hit its highest since October 2013. Both indices are up around 40pc in the past week.

Shares in US banks Citigroup and JPMorgan trading in Frankfurt were down 3.5 and 3.7pc respectively, albeit in very low volume.

Worries over the banks pushed up borrowing costs in Portugal, Spain and Italy — three countries that were at the heart of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis.

Yields on Portugal’s 10-year debt rose 21 basis points to 3.14pc, their highest since July 2015.

At the same time, German 10-year yields, the eurozone benchmark, fell more than 6 bps to 0.25pc and two-year yields hit a record low of -0.506pc.

Ten-year US Treasury yields fell 5.5 bps to 1.79pc.

DOLLAR DOWN: This pushed the dollar to its lowest against the safe-haven Japanese yen for more than two weeks at 116.11 yen, down 0.6pc on the day.

Speculators slashed bullish bets on the dollar for a sixth straight week through Feb 2, according to data on Friday from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Weak US economic data recently has led investors to pare back their bets on steady interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve though the latest CFTC figures do not take account of Friday’s US jobs report.

It showed a pick-up in wage growth last month and dented the view on the Fed outlook.

Crude oil futures skidded over 2pc to just over $33 by 1015 GMT, as a meeting between Opec producers Saudi Arabia and Venezuela provided little indication that steps would be taken to boost prices. Earlier, oil had gained as much as 1pc on hopes that an agreement would be reached to curb supply.

Earlier, Asian shares fell, though trade was thin with many markets shut for the Lunar New Year holiday. Chinese markets are shut for the whole week.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.4pc, though Japan’s Nikkei ended up 1.1pc. Data over the weekend showed China’s foreign reserves fell for a third straight month in January, as dollars were dumped to defend the yuan and curb capital outflows. The fall was less than forecast but was the second biggest on record.

Beijing has been struggling to underpin the yuan, which faces depreciation pressure as China’s growth rate slows to its lowest levels in a quarter of a century.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2016