Frankfurt  - European shares opened sharply down Monday after a steep fall in stocks across Asia signalled another tumultuous week on global bourses.

After a wave of panic selling in Asia's stock markets, Europe's blue-chip Stoxx 50 slumped by 5.9 per cent in early trading to 1,994 points as recession fears deepen.

This came in the wake of big falls in opening trade across Europe's national bourses with London sliding more than 5 per cent, Paris' CAC 40 index cascading down by nearly 6 per cent and Frankfurt's key DAX dropping by 5 per cent.

The renewed sell off in shares came as Europe's third-quarter company reporting season gained momentum with stocks in Frankfurt dragged down by a profit warning from Germany's giant mail delivery company Deutsche Post AG.

This resulted in Bonn-based Deutsche Post shares dropping by 17 per cent in early trading.

In the meantime, Germany's leading consumer bank Deutsche Postbank unveiled on Monday a third-quarter loss and writedowns stemming from the world financial crisis that triggered investors dumping shares around the world.

Deutsche Post's shares had lost about 16 per cent in early trading with European bank shares taking another hammering. Europe's biggest insurer Allianz AG, was down 14 per cent in early trading.

The grim mood gripping European stocks followed a more than 6 per cent close in Tokyo. Shares in Hong Kong dropped nearly 13 per cent with India off about 7 per cent.

Concerns about Europe's gloomy economic outlook resulted in the euro dropping by 1.5 per cent with the common currency trading below 1.25 dollars.

The prospects of falling energy demand meant that oil prices also came under renewed downward pressure, with oil prices falling more than 3 per cent to 62.10 dollars a barrel in Europe. (dpa)