Deutsche Bank shares slide 5% in 'Rock solid'

Shares in Deutsche Bank continued to fall on Tuesday despite assurances from the bank that its balance sheet was "rock solid".

 

The bank's shares in Frankfurt were almost 5% lower at €13.15 in mid-afternoon trade.

They fell 9.5% on Monday despite the bank issuing a statement that it had "sufficient" reserves to make bond payments.

Deutsche Bank's shares have fallen by 40% since the start of the year.

On Tuesday, the bank's co-chief executive John Cryan, sent a message to all staff in which he assured them the bank was in a strong financial position, despite global growth fears, low oil and other commodity prices, and the fact that the bank would be booking write-downs in its fourth quarter.

He said that while the stock markets had "expressed some concern about the adequacy of our legal provisions", he did not "share that concern".

"We will almost certainly have to add to our legal provisions this year, but this is already accounted for in our financial plan," he said. 

Mr Cryan added: "Volatility in the fourth quarter impacted the earnings of most major banks, especially those in Europe, and clients may ask you about how the market-wide volatility is impacting Deutsche Bank."

 

He said staff at the bank could tell customers concerned about investing with the bank that "Deutsche Bank remains absolutely rock-solid, given our strong capital and risk position".

The email to staff, made publicly available via the bank's official Twitter account, is an unusual step.

It follows Monday's statement to investors in which the bank stated its 2016 payment capacity was estimated to be about €1bn (£783m), sufficient to pay so-called additional tier 1 (AT1) coupons of approximately €350m on 30 April.

Such statements are rare and illustrate the level of fear currently stalking the markets,

In recent weeks, bank stocks have suffered heavy losses, with traders citing concerns about the level of exposure some banks may have to commodity and oil company debt, amid a desire among some mining and oil firms to maintain dividend payments even if they have to borrow to do so.

The bank is also the subject of takeover speculation in German media, given the low value of its share price. Deutsche Bank has had negative press for years now amid a series of scandals and litigation. It chalked up a record loss of €6.8bn last year.

Fears that banks do not have the financial reserves to cope with a major oil or commodities company reneging on its debt payments were reflected in European stock markets on Tuesday, with banking stocks and commodities firms under particular pressure in afternoon trade across all the major European indexes.

In the UK, miners led the losers' board on the FTSE 100, with Anglo American down almost 10% at 339.20p, Antofagasta down 8.9% at 412.90p and Glencore down more than 7.3% at 95.28p.

Royal Bank of Scotland was 1.95% lower at 226.20p, Barclays was 3.6% lower at 158.05p and HSBC was lower by 0.95% at 434.30p.