Major European stock markets, which climbed up to record highs on Wednesday, dropped down on Thursday, with London market witnessing its biggest one-day decline since November last year.

In London. leading shares took a hammering on the day, losing nearly one percent, their biggest one-day decline since November, with the FTSE 100 index falling 54 points to 5747.

Despite reporting full-year profits of 13.1 billion pounds, oil giant Shell's shares fell by 2.5 percent with investors hoping for more.

Centrica, Britain's biggest energy supplier, saw its shares soar by 11 percent when Russian gas producer Gazprom said it was considering a takeover bid.

In Paris, the blue-chip French shares lost early gains, dragged down by Thomson whose shares were clobbered after missing profits forecasts.

Shares in the media services firm slumped 16 percent to 14.09 euros after it reported slow sales of DVD players and trimmed its 2006 forecasts.

France Telecom, Peugeot and Vivendi Universal and Total also lost ground while Alcatel was the principal riser. The benchmark CAC index closed down 71.50 points, or 1.4 percent, at 4,927.89.

In Frankfurt, German shares surrendered early gains following poorly received corporate earnings and fresh European Central Bank warnings on inflation, with the DAX index closing Thursday's session down 76.93 points, or 0.35 percent, at 5,649.60.

Banks were under pressure after traders ignored Deutsche Bank's 60 percent profit rise in 2005 and focused on slowing returns in the most recent quarter.

Deutsche Bank slid 2.5 percent to 87.49 euros while Commerzbank fell 2.9 percent to 28.20.

In the currency market, the US dollar dipped against the euro, ending at 1.2100 dollars to a euro from 1.2082, but the dollar went higher over the Japanese yen, closing at one dollar to 118.42 yen from 118.00.

The greenback declined against the British sterling, ending at 1.7798 dollars to a pound from 1.7770.

Source: Xinhua