EUROPE MARKETS: European Stocks Fall As ECB's Draghi Talks Stimulus

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Stocks across Europe dropped Thursday, stuck in the red as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi talked about monetary policy as the bank faces pressure to ramp up stimulus efforts for the struggling eurozone.

The ECB said it will hold its main lending rate at 0.05%, and the interest rate paid on deposits left overnight at the ECB was held at -0.2%. The rate on the ECB's marginal lending facility was kept at 0.3%.

Stimulus: Draghi, at his monthly news conference, said the bank's upcoming program of purchasing asset-backed purchases will last at least two years and that targeted long-term refinancing operations will have a "sizable" impact on the ECB's balance sheet. Read live blog of Draghi's conference.

A raft of recent data have highlighted worsening economic conditions in the region, including Wednesday's report showing manufacturing-sector activity in Germany -- Europe's biggest economy -- contracted and hit a 15-month low.

Markets: The Stoxx Europe 600 hit intraday lows as Draghi spoke, and was down 1.2% at 336.19 in broad-based losses. The European oil and gas group stumbled 1%, as crude-oil futures slid below $90 a barrel for the first time since April 2013 after Saudi Arabia said it will cut the selling price of its oil.

The euro (EURUSD) briefly hit an intraday high at $1.2693 after Draghi said euroskeptic sentiment in Germany as well as in countries undergoing strict austerity is understandable, but that the shared currency isn't going away.

"I would only repeat that the euro is irreversible," he said.

Germany's DAX 30 fell 0.6% and France's CAC 40 lost 1.2%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gave up 0.5%.

Among individual stocks, Bayer AG said it sold $7 billion worth of bonds in an effort to finance its purchase of Merck & Co.'s (MRK) over-the-counter medicine business. Shares of Bayer were down 1.1%.

In Frankfurt, Rocket Internet AG shares made their trading debut. They were at 39.77 euros ($50.26) in afternoon action, down from their issue price of EUR42.50.

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