European stocks finished sharply lower Monday as investors remained cautious after last week's mixed earnings from U.S. corporate giants. Energy and mining stocks were among the worst hit across the European exchanges, following steep declines in the price of oil from last week's record highs.
The London FTSE-100 ended firmly in the red, led by British Energy and Tullow Oil. One of the few stocks in positive territory was publishing company Pearson, which raised its full-year sales forecast and said its third-quarter sales had been strong. Shares of Pearson were 2.1 percent higher.
In Stockholm, Electrolux missed its forecasts for third-quarter core earnings, blaming higher than expected costs related to new product launches. Shares of the home appliance maker were 7.1 percent lower, as the OMX-S tumbled 2 percent.
Commerzbank suffered the heaviest declines on a weak Frankfurt DAX following a report from the Financial Times Deutschland, which quotes the bank's CEO Klaus-Peter Mueller as saying the 80 million euro ($114 million) writedowns are not enough to account for its U.S. subprime mortgage exposure.
The Paris CAC-40 also closed lower.