European Stocks Hammered Yet Again

(RTTNews) - European stocks plunged in the final hours of Monday's session, extending steep recent losses as investors remained anxious about European Central Bank inaction.

ECB officials jawboned about stimulus last week but appear reluctant to pull the trigger on full-scale quantitative easing.

Meanwhile, France has experienced deflation and the euro zone economy is threatened with triple-dip recession.

Energy stocks remained under heavy pressure as crude oil's epic decline showed few signs of abating.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks dropped 2.75 percent and is now well into negative territory year-to-date.

The German DAX lost 2.72 percent, the French CAC 40 dropped 2.52 percent, and the FTSE 100 index lost 1.87 percent.

Total SA lost 4.3 percent, Tullow Oil lost 2.3 percent and BP lost 3.2 percent.

OPEC will be in no hurry to cut oil production if oil prices continue their epic collapse, a top official from member nation United Arab Emirates said over the weekend.

In Paris, Technip climbed 1 percent after it announced Sunday it does not intend to launch a tender offer for French seismic surveyor CGG.

Meanwhile, CGG plunged 29.2 percent.

RWE, which plans a more flexible dividend policy from 2015, lost around 2 percent.

Carpetright, which reported a surge in its first-half profit, surged close to 15 percent.