Daily Times

LONDON: European shares fell on Wednesday maintaining a gloomy trend set in Asia and the United States, and with concerns about a global glut of oil looming over the market.

Mixed results from the continent’s banking sector and losses in the mining sector pushed the pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) down 0.6 percent.

The losses came after oil prices fell 1.18 percent on Wednesday as investors grew increasingly doubtful that OPEC members will agree to cut output and as US inventories staged a surprisingly large increase. [nL4N1CW19L]

Brent crude futures were down 73 cents at 1100 GMT, closing in on $50 a barrel for the first time in three weeks.

“There have been rumours that Russia may not be on board with the production cuts and Iraq is also apparently seeking an exemption. The market is starting to question whether the OPEC agreement reached a couple of weeks ago is really as solid as originally thought,” Investec economist Ryan Djajasaputra said. Iraq, OPEC’s second biggest oil producer, wants to be exempt from the cut, arguing it needs the revenues to fight Islamic State.