European exchanges close on Monday with steep fall

Leading European stock markets finished trading on Monday a significant drop,

the indices of Italian and German stock exchanges fell by as much as

3.4-3.8% amid fears of investors on how to reduce the debt of the

sovereign ratings of the eurozone countries, RIA Novosti reported.

Thus, in Italian trading FTSE Mib fell by as much as 3.79%  to

15696.78 points, the German DAX 30 fell 3.36% to 5785.43 points. The

French CAC 40 fell by 2.61 to 3089.59 points. Britain's FTSE 100 fell

1.83% to 5427.86 points.

Investors paid attention to the outcome of the auction on government

bonds in Italy. The country's authorities on Monday placed the

government bonds of 7 billion euros and the yield on the securities

has decreased significantly.  

The news from Greece also had a definite influence on the bidding. Finance

Minister Evangelos Venizelos announced the intention of the authorities to conclude the

negotiations on the exchange of bonds with a partial write-off of the

nominal value (PSI) by the end of January 2012. This step should allow

Greece to reduce the 360-billion national debt by 100 billion euros.