European shares fell early today, led by commodity stocks, following sharp falls in oil and metal prices.
At 0731 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.4 per cent at 1,185.01 points.
Oil fell to its lowest level since mid-April, extending the previous day's fall on signs that a weakened Hurricane Gustav appeared to have spared major Gulf oil facilities.
Oil was down $6.76 a barrel at $108.71.
BP, Total, StatOilHydro and Royal Dutch Shell fell by 1-2.4 per cent.
"There is no real reason why the oil price should go up with Hurricane Gustav weakening. The market should be led by further weakness in the commodity price," said Justin Urquhart-Stewart, director at Seven Investment Management.
German exchange operator Deutsche Borse led gainers in Europe with a 3.8 per cent rise after its two biggest shareholders said they would work together to explore all options for shareholder value creation.
But Alcatel-Lucent fell 3.6 per cent to top European losers after the world's top provider of fixed-line telecoms networks named a new management team.
Reuters
