European stocks drop as oil weighs

Stock markets across Europe fell in early trading on the back of nervous Asian equities and drop in oil prices.

At the time of writing, Stoxx 50 index was trading marginally lower. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC were down 0.05% and 0.10% respectively. UK’s mining heavy FTSE was trading up 0.06%.

UK’s Rio Tinto was up almost 2% along with a 2.10% rise in Germany’s RWE AG ST. Meanwhile, the losing side included names like Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered and Societe Generale.

Oil benchmarks extended Friday’s losses on falling prospects of production freeze. Trading sentiment in Asian markets was mostly mixed, with strength in Japanese Yen triggering losses in Nikkei.