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By 08:12 BST, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 had dropped 0.4 per cent to 1,108.05 points, Reuters reports.
There were falls of between 0.7 per cent and 1.5 per cent for HSBC, Banco Santander, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas, while declining oil and metal prices caused BG Group, Royal Dutch Shell, Total and BP to dip by as much as 0.6 per cent.
Investors are now looking forward to the publication of quarterly results from Bank of America and General Electric, both of which are due to be announced today.
Google released its statistics for the three months to March 31st yesterday, with the 23 per cent increase in revenue leaving investors disappointed.
Its shares were down in after-market trading and Bernard McAlinden of NCB Stockbrokers noted to the news agency that the FTSEurofirst is "running out of steam" after a strong run.
Posted by Greg Secker
