LONDON (AFP) - European stock markets fell back in early trading as high-flying oil prices and jitters about upcoming company results undermined investor sentiment.
The London FTSE 100 index lost 0.75 percent to 4,543.90 points, the Frankfurt DAX 30 fell 1.12 percent to 3,866.43 points and the Paris CAC 40 shed 0.66 percent to 3,649.40 points.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares declined 0.65 percent to 2,722.27 dollars.
The euro stood at 1.2253 dollars.
"High oil prices, earnings pessimism, ambiguous economic signals and political uncertainties still weigh, but with the downside well flagged, the risks may be on the upside," said Nomura Securites analyst Anais Faraj.
"Policymakers are likely to accentuate the positive at this weeks IMF/G7 meetings, but investor sentiment continues to sound cautious."
The price of Brent North Sea crude oil rose to a new all-time peak of 46.05 dollars a barrel in London after oil majors evacuated workers in Nigeria and police clashed with suspected Islamic militants in Saudi Arabia.
New York's main oil contract rose to within just one cent of its August 20 all-time peak of 49.40 dollars a barrel.
Rising oil prices snuffed out a modest stock market rally in New York on Friday, leaving the major indexes little changed.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended with a gain of 0.08 percent to 10,047.24 points and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 0.37 percent to 1,879.48 points.
The broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index edged up 0.16 percent to 1,110.11 points.
Investors in Asia were also in a cautious mood on Monday.
The Tokyo Nikkei-225 index lost 0.33 percent to 10,859.32 points amid nervousness ahead the release of the Bank of Japan's key quarterly Tankan business survey on Friday, dealers said.
In Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index closed down 0.34 percent at 13,021.90 points.
Among European shares, Havas rose 5.99 percent to 4.27 euros in Paris on persistent speculation that the French advertising company could become a takeover target for British group WPP, dealers said.
The shares also got a lift from technical reasons as the subscription rights of the company's capital increase began trading, they added.
Manchester United dropped 1.92 percent to 256 pence in London after the club warned that its current year results would be hit by a sharp drop in media revenues, while reporting a six-percent increase in annual underlying profit.
Shares in British cement maker RMC rocketed 42.3 percent to 852.5 pence after agreeing to a takeover bid from Mexican rival Cemex valued at 2.3 billion pounds (3.9 billion euros, 4.2 billion dollars).