Fresh French banks slide hits European shares | Reuters

(Reuters) - French banking shares fell sharply on Thursday, adding to a hefty sell-off the previous session on growing concerns about their outlook and briefly erasing early gains in European stocks.

Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) was down 4.4 percent after falling as much as 23 percent on Wednesday on rumors, which the bank denied, about its financial solidity. BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) was down 4.9 percent while Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA) fell 0.5 percent.

"There aren't fresh rumors, but we're seeing mounting concerns of systemic risk out there. We haven't seen panic selling yet, but people don't want to be caught off guard," said Lionel Jardin, head of institutional sales at Assya Capital in Paris.

The European banking index .SX7P was down 0.7 percent, giving up earlier gains of nearly 4 percent. The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares was up 0.5 percent at 914.67 points, off a high for the day of 932.34.

via reuters.com