Away from the lows of the day closed the European markets, heavy losses the banks

European markets narrowed their losses and closed away from their lows on Monday, with investors pinning their hopes on Russia-Ukraine talks on a ceasefire.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed with small losses of 0.1% after a dip of almost 2% in the low of the day. In the whole month, the index lost 3.4%, while from its last record high in January it falls about 9%.

Officials from Russia and Ukraine have ended talks on the border with Belarus and are returning to their seats for consultations. The sides agreed that a second round of talks would follow, opening up a glimmer of hope for the possibility of reaching an agreement on a ceasefire.

European markets were found to be moving deep red earlier after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to order his country’s nuclear forces to be on high alert.

The German DAX fell 0.7% to 14,461.02 points, the French CAC 40 fell 1.4% to 6,658.83 points, while the British FTSE 100 lost 0.4% to 7,458.25 points.

In the region, the Italian FTSE MIB fell 1.4%, while the Spanish IBEX 35 closed with small losses of 0.1%.

Eurozone banks have seen most of the pressure as much of Western sanctions focus on the financial sector. The Stoxx Europe 600 Banks index fell 4.5% with banks that have a large exposure in Russia falling. The Austrian Raiffeisen Bank, the Italian UniCredit and the French Societe Generale lost from 9.5% to 14%.

Oil giant BP plunged 4% after announcing it would divest from Russia’s state-owned Rosneft at a cost of up to $ 25 billion.

French carmaker Renault, which controls Russian Avtovaz, fell 6.6%.

Defense company Rheinmetall jumped almost 25% in the wake of German Chancellor Olaf Soltz ‘s announcement that his country would dramatically increase defense spending to more than 2% of GDP.

The French Thales, the Italian Leonardo and the British BAE Systems won from 10.2% to 15%.