Major European shares fell on Monday as high oil price and disappointing earnings reports caused concern.

In London, Friday's sell-off on Wall Street and worries over high oil prices still clouded the London market, but mobile stocks ushered in a beam of sunshine, and the FTSE 100 index was quoted down 11.5 points at 5,660.9.

Liquid gases company BOC and fellow chemicals group ICI both weighed on the index as peers elsewhere in the world revealed a downbeat profits outlook.

However, Vodafone, leading mobile company in UK, climbed 2.5 percent on reports it is under pressure to sell its stake in Verizon.

In Paris, French shares posted losses as high oil prices and the falling value of the dollar against the euro hit markets across Europe, and the benchmark CAC 40 index in Paris was quoted 21.49 points, or 0.45 percent lower at 4,751.99 by the close of trade.

Investor confidence was also hit by the big share price falls seen in the U.S. last Friday, when markets saw their biggest losses in nearly three years.

Leading the losers were Michelin, Renault and Sanofi Synthelabo.

In Frankfurt, German shares managed to scramble back from lows inspired by last week's sell-off in the U.S. and Japan as Wall Street staged a comeback and the Frankfurt's DAX index of leading shares was quoted 0.03 percent, or 1.71 points lower at 5,347.31.

Shares in Commerzbank fell 1.55 percent after it said it planned more acquisitions but saw no danger of being taken over.

Meanwhile, shares in chip maker Infineon, which slipped 4.5 percent on Friday, rebounded to stand 1.8 percent higher.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar climbed a little up over the euro closing at 1.2100 dollars to a euro from previously 1.2113, and the dollar also rose over the Japanese yen, ending at one dollar to 115.40 yen from 115.26.

The greenback, however, went lower against the British sterling, closing at 1.7650 dollars to a pound from 1.7613.

Source: Xinhua