Commodities

LONDON (ShareCast) - European shares are sharply lower in early trade, tracking a drop in Asia, with commodity stocks among the main fallers.

Switzerland's Holcim (Virt-X: HOLN.VX - news) has agreed to buy the Australian operations of Mexico's Cemex (VCM-2.CR - news) for A$2.02bn ($1.61bn).

The world's second-biggest cement maker also announced plans to raise about 2bn Swiss francs ($1.84bn) by selling around 55.4m shares to finance the deal.

Under the proposed deal, Holcim will buy Cemex Australia and a 25% stake in Cement Australia, in which it already has a 50% shareholding.

Across the markets, the German DAX is down 105 points at 4,963 with the French CAC falling 63 points at 3,262. The Swiss market is down 66 points to 5,455.

Energy shares, including Total, ENI (Milan: ENI.MI - news) and Royal Dutch Shell (Amsterdam: RDSA.AS - news) , are also down after crude oil futures retreated following the recent rally.

CAC 40 (Paris: news) - Fallers Air France (Paris: FR0000031122 - news) -KLM (AF (Stockholm: 45674.ST - news) ) € 9.53 -4.55% ArcelorMittal SA (MT) € 24.33 -3.09% Peugeot (Paris: FR0000121501 - news) (UG) € 21.94 -3.03% Saint Gobain (Paris: FR0000125007 - news) (SGO) € 25.86 -2.96% Lafarge (Paris: FR0000120537 - news) (LG (003550.KS - news) ) € 49.25 -2.84% Michelin (Paris: FR0000121261 - news) (ML) € 43.33 -2.79% ST Microelectronics (Paris: NL0000226223 - news) (STM) € 5.68 -2.71% Alstom (ALO) € 43.64 -2.67% AXA (CS) € 14.17 -2.54% EDF (EDF (Paris: FR0010242511 - news) ) € 34.73 -2.53%