European Shares Decline On Geopolitical Tensions, Weak Data

(RTTNews) - European stocks traded lower on Monday amid fresh geopolitical crisis in the Middle East and lingering concerns about the outlook for U.S. interest rates.

Investors rushed to safe-haven assets such as the dollar, bonds and gold after Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a large-scale attack on Israel on Saturday.

Israel responded with its heaviest ever bombardment of Gaza, killing more than 400 people.

Investors also reacted to weak data from Germany and the euro zone.

Germany's industrial production continued to decline in August on weak construction and energy output, but the overall pace of contraction softened, data from Destatis showed.

Industrial output decreased 0.2 percent from July, when it dropped by revised 0.6 percent. Production was forecast to fall 0.3 percent after July's initially estimated decline of 0.8 percent.

Sentix's index for the euro zone declined to -21.9 points in October from -21.5 in September.

The pan European STOXX 600 slipped 0.2 percent to 443.98 after rising 0.8 percent on Friday.

The German DAX and France's CAC 40 both fell around 0.7 percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 0.4 percent, led by energy stocks.

BP Plc, Shell and Total Energies jumped 2-3 percent as oil prices rallied 3 percent to over $85 a barrel on concerns about potential disruptions to global oil supplies.

Defense stocks advanced, with Sweden's Saab surging over 9. Italy's Leonardo and Germany's Rheinmetall both rose over 6 percent.

Airline stocks suffered losses on concerns about higher fuel costs. Lufthansa, IAG and Air France KLM lost 3-4 percent.

Metro Bank Holdings soared nearly 17 percent after reports that the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority has approached a number of big U.K. lenders in the past few days, including NatWest, Santander UK and JP Morgan Chase, to see if they had any interest in taking over the British lender.