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* Pan-European indexes down 0.7 percent
* Essentra plunges after profit warning
* Pullback in oil price hits commodities sector
* Financials down on low rates prospects (Updates prices and adds details)
By Kit Rees and Danilo Masoni
MILAN, June 9 (Reuters) - European shares fell for a secondstraight day on Thursday, weighed down by weakness amongcommodities-related stocks, while Essentra plungedafter a profit warning.
The pan-European STOXX 600 and FTSEurofirst 300 indexes were both down around 0.7 percent by 1408 GMT.
Among the biggest fallers on the STOXX 600, Essentra slumped around 29 percent after it warned of lowerfull-year profit, citing challenging market conditions for itsfilter products and delays in some large projects.
A softening in the price of oil weighed on the shares of oil& gas companies. Traders took profits after three sessions ofgains, though oil prices remained close to year highs.
The oil & gas sector was down 1 percent, whileanalysts said a weakening oil price was also pulling basicresources stocks lower, which fell 2.8 percent.
Analysts also pointed to comments from the European CentralBank's president Mario Draghi that Europe is at risk ofsuffering lasting economic damage from weak productivity and lowgrowth as weighing on investor sentiment.
Despite this, shares in DONG Energy jumped asmuch as 10 percent after the Danish utility and wind farmdeveloper sealed the biggest European stock market flotationthis year.
Some investors cited the recent strength of the euro as a negative factor for European equities, along with cautionahead of a UK vote later this month on whether to remain in theEuropean Union.
"The weaker dollar is overall bad for European companies and... the Brexit vote means there will be a lot of uncertaintiesin the mid term," said Jerome Schupp, head of research at SYZAsset Management in Geneva.
Fading expectations of a U.S rate hike triggered by aweaker-than-expected jobs report last Friday have sent thedollar to a five-week low against a basket of currencies thisweek. The euro had strengthened but was down on Thursday.
Schupp said expectations that the Federal Reserve would notlift interest rates any time soon had weighed on financialstocks, especially the big European banks with a globalbusiness.
The STOXX 600 Bank sector index, the worst sectoralperformer so far this year, was down 0.7 percent.
Profitability in the sector is being hurt by the EuropeanCentral Bank's ultra-low interest rates, a policy which has beencriticised by German politicians including Finance MinisterWolfgang Schaeuble.
On Wednesday, sources told Reuters that Commerzbank was examining the possibility of hoarding billions ofeuros in vaults rather than paying a penalty charge for parkingit with the ECB.
Commerzbank shares fell 2.1 percent.
Vodafone weighed on telecoms stocks, falling 4percent and making it the third-biggest loser on theFTSEurofirst, after it traded without entitlement to its latestdividend payout.
German utility E.ON also fell after goingex-dividend.
Today's European research round-up
ADVISORY- Reuters plans to replace intra-day European and UKstock market reports with a Live Markets blog on Eikon (see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets for site in development). In a real-time, multimedia formatfrom 0600 London time through the 1630 closing bell, it willinclude the best of our market reporting, Stocks Buzz service,Eikon graphics, Reuters pictures, eye-catching research andmarket zeitgeist. Breaking news and dramatic market moves willcontinue to be alerted to all clients and we will continue toprovide a short opening story and comprehensive closing reports.
If you have any thoughts, suggestions orfeedback on this, please email mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com.
Mike Dolan, Markets Editor EMEA.
(Reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Andrew Roche)
