European shares fell in early trade today as banking shares continued to slide even as authorities took a series of measures to limit the impact of the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.6% at 10:12 GMT, having closed Friday at its lowest level in more than five weeks.

However, Wall Street futures rallied after the US central bank (Fed) and the US Treasury Department announced a series of measures to stabilize the banking system and said depositors at SVB would have access to their deposits today.

European bank shares fell 1.1 percent after their worst two-day sell-off in more than five months amid concerns about the resilience of the industry’s balance sheets amid the collapse of SVB and the outlook for interest rates.

HSBC shares fell 0.1% after the British bank announced that it is acquiring the UK subsidiary of SVB against one pound sterling.

Opening with a fall in the Athens Stock Exchange

Downward trends are registered by stock prices at the opening of today’s session of the Athens Stock Exchange, amid downward movement and European markets in the wake of the developments triggered by the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank.

The General Price Index at 11:00, stands at 1,044.21 units, marking a drop of 1.19%.

The value of the transactions amounts to 13.49 million euros.

The large-cap index is down 1.21%, while the mid-cap index is down 1.39%.

Of the high capitalization shares, the shares of Ellactor (+2.43%), Jumbo (+1.33%) and Lamda Development (+0.42%) recorded an increase.

On the contrary, the largest decline was registered by the shares of Eurobank (-2.85%), Alpha Bank (-2.58%), Mytileneos (-2.07%) and Piraeus (-1.71%).

Of the individual indices, only the Real Estate index (+0.36%) recorded an increase.

On the contrary, the biggest losses were recorded by the indices of Industrial Products (-2.06%) and Banks (-1.98%).

12 stocks move up, 57 down and 15 remain stable.

The biggest increase was recorded by the shares: Centic Participations +3.20% and CPI +2.78%, while the biggest decline was recorded by the shares: Attica bank -9.99% and Biocarpet -5.68%.

Foreign exchange: The euro strengthens by 0.68%, to 1.0715 dollars

In the foreign exchange market, the euro against the dollar is up 0.68% at $1.0715.

The euro is at 143.7710 yen, 0.8858 against the pound and 0.9807 against the Swiss franc.

The dollar was down 0.54% against the yen at 134.2370 yen.

Sterling was up 0.50% against the dollar at $1.2094.