BNP loss linked to Lehman downfall

BNP Paribas SA and Axa SA, France's largest financial-services companies, posted losses after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc shook markets.

BNP Paribas, the biggest French bank, had a 1.37 billion-euro ($1.72 billion) fourth-quarter loss, compared with a 1.01 billion-euro profit a year before. Axa, Europe's second-largest insurer, had a deficit of 1.24 billion euros in the second half, its first loss in seven years. Both cut their dividends.

The Paris-based companies, which avoided the worst of the US subprime crisis, suffered after the September bankruptcy of Lehman. The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index sank 46 percent last year, the worst annual performance on record, as credit-related losses at financial firms pushed the US, Europe and Japan into the first simultaneous recessions since World War II.