European Markets decline as Greece downgraded

European Markets lost grounds in the early trade today after the Greece was downgraded by Moody's ratings agency on Monday with banking stocks among the biggest loser.      

Moody's Investors Service yesterday downgraded Greece's government debt rating by four notches to Ba1 from A3, following a similar move by Standard & Poor's in April.

London’s FTSE 100 had losses almost 0.51% or 26.65 points at 5175.66. Germany’s DAX was 0.28% at 6107.72 lower while the CAC 40 in Paris reduced by 0.43% at 3610.54.

Banks gave off their recent gains as investors shunned to riskier assets. HSBC, Banco Santander and Barclays declined 1.4 to 2.2%. Miners also gave back some gains from the previous session and oil giant BP extended monthly losses to 28.5%. However, shares in British Sky Broadcasting jumped 20.2% after it said a full takeover proposal received from News Corp. at 700 pence a share undervalued the firm.