Europe fell heavily in early trade, with losses of 3.68% in Milan, 3.51% in Paris, 3.28% in Frankfurt, hitting a low since October, and 1.91% in London around 09:00 GMT.

In Russia, the RTS index plunged 4.29%.

The Asian markets had already set the tone earlier, Tokyo losing 2.23%, the Chinese stock markets falling more moderately (Hong Kong -1.41%, Shanghai -0.98%).

As of Friday, the geopolitical concerns of investors had swung Wall Street clearly into the red: the Dow Jones had lost 1.43%, the Nasdaq 2.78% and the broader S&P 500 index, 1.90%.

Washington reaffirmed on Sunday that the Russians could attack Ukraine "at any time" and further intense diplomatic efforts over the weekend between Western leaders and the Kremlin did not lower the tension.

"The market is pricing in the danger of a price war," said CMC Markets analyst Jochen Stanzl.

"While hope for a last-minute diplomatic breakthrough on the Ukraine file remains high in the markets, many investors are being forced out of stocks due to rising geopolitical risks."

The fear of an armed conflict, on the contrary, pushes investors to take refuge in assets perceived as safer, such as government bonds;

the 10-year yield of Germany, which is a reference in Europe, thus fell to 0.20%, against 0.30% at the close on Friday.

It also caused oil prices to soar to their highest in seven years.

"The price of oil is thus closely watched and could reach the threshold of 100 dollars in the short term and weigh a little more on the rise in inflation", estimates Vincent Boy, analyst of the broker IG France.

Tensions around Ukraine are at their height, with 130,000 Russian soldiers massed on the Ukrainian border carrying out all-out maneuvers.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected in Kiev on Monday to continue diplomatic efforts to defuse the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Banks massacred

All values ​​were affected by this movement, but banking even more so.

In Paris Societe Generale, particularly present in Russia, fell by 6.73% to 33.54 euros, BNP Paribas by 5.19% to 61.50 euros.

In Frankfurt, Deutsche Bank plunged 5.71% to 13.58 euros, and Unicredit 5.72% to 14.80 euros.

transport blocked

Automobile stocks also suffered heavy losses, as did the entire industrial sector, which is sensitive to variations in economic activity.

Renault fell by 5.52% to 33.96 euros in Paris, BMW by 4.12% to 91.37 euros in Frankfurt.

Airlines, such as Air-France-KLM (-8.12% to 4.04 euros) or the tourism giant TUI (-6.43% to 267.90 pence) in London were also strongly affected.

On the side of oil, the euro and bitcoin

Oil prices remained very high after surging more than 3% on Friday.

The barrel of Brent for April delivery fell only 0.22% to 94.23 dollars, and the WTI for March maturity remained stable at 93.08 dollars around 09:55 GMT.

The euro lost 0.34% against the greenback, at 1.1312 dollars.

Bitcoin fell 0.31% to $42,100.

© 2022 AFP