European shares fall as losses in financials, banks weigh

(Reuters) -European shares fell on Wednesday tracking overnight declines on Wall Street, with financials and bank stocks leading early declines, though gains in some defence-related stocks helped limit losses.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.5% at 552.5 points, as of 0714 GMT. Most regional bourses also ticked lower, with the Italian benchmark at the helm of losses.

Heavyweight banks dropped 0.9%, with Germany’s Deutsche Bank, UK’s Barclays, France’s Societe Generale and Denmark’s Sydbank all down more than 1% each.

The subindex for financial services also dipped 1.1%.

An index tracking defence stocks gained 0.8% after U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed Ukraine could retake all its land occupied by Russia and that Kyiv should act now.

Wall Street’s main indexes fell ov