European stock markets ended down sharply on Monday, weighed down by worsening tensions in Ukraine, where Westerners fear a flare-up of conflict.
The Paris Stock Exchange fell 2.04% to 6,788.34 points. The Frankfurt market lost 2.07%, that of Amsterdam 2.04% and the Eurostoxx 50, the European benchmark index, fell by 2.17%.
Geopolitical risk dominates absolutely everything, notes Alexandre Baradez, analyst at IG France.
The Parisian coast had however started the day on the rise, thanks to the hope of a possible meeting between the American and Russian presidents.
This optimism was dampened by the Kremlin, which then deemed it premature to organize a summit.
In the middle of the day, it was an announcement of the Russian weapon that caused the CAC 40 index to plunge by more than 2%, just like other European indices.
Moscow on Monday accused Ukrainian saboteurs of entering Russia and claimed that a Russian border post had been destroyed by Ukrainian artillery, which Ukraine has categorically denied.
Russia says it has killed five of these agents and taken a Ukrainian soldier prisoner.
In the crowd, bilateral meetings were announced and Ukraine requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
In addition, Russian President Vladimir Putin will decide on Monday whether he recognizes the independence of the pro-Russian separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, at the risk of setting fire to the powder, at a time when Westerners fear that an incident serve as a pretext for a Russian offensive against Ukraine.
Fighting in the separatist east of Ukraine took place all weekend.
Alexandre Baradez stresses, however, that the euro is not moving, a sign that there is no extreme panic on the markets.
Apart from geopolitical risk, there is nothing moving the market today, adds the analyst, not even the excellent PMIs for the services part of the French, German and euro zone economies.
Indeed, after two months of slowdown, the growth of activity in the euro zone accelerated sharply in the private sector in February, taking advantage of the easing of health restrictions, according to the composite PMI index from the Markit firm published on Monday.
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