German stocks fell sharply on Monday, with banks declining again after Switzerland's largest banking institution - UBS Group - entered into a merger deal with its troubled rival - Credit Suisse.
The benchmark DAX was down 210 points, or 1.4 percent, at 14,558 after losing 1.3 percent on Friday.
Commerzbank shares fell 6.3 percent and Deutsche Bank lost 8 percent.
Investors ignored preliminary data showing that Germany's producer price inflation eased for the fifth straight month in February to reach its lowest level in nearly one-and-a-half years amid a continued slowdown in energy prices.
The producer price index climbed 15.8 percent year-over-year in February, which was slower than the 17.6 percent rise in January, Destatis reported. Economists had forecast the price growth to ease to 14.5 percent.
Further, the latest inflation rate was the weakest since September 2021, when prices had risen 14.2 percent.
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