Commerzbank share falls after CEO warns of earnings decline

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Commerzbank (CBKG.DE) said it expects first quarter earnings to be below those of the fourth quarter of 2015, hurt by low interest rates and capital market volatility at the start of the year, sending its shares sharply lower.

"In view of the clearly worsened environment, we are also reckoning with a cautious start to the year," Chief Executive Martin Blessing told the bank's annual meeting of shareholders on Wednesday. "This will have an effect on the full year: it will be clearly more challenging to reach the group result achieved in 2015," said Blessing, who steps down at the end of the month.

Big U.S. banks have already reported a weak start to the year as volatile markets kept clients from trading, investing or issuing new securities.

The lender's share fell more than 4 percent and was the biggest decliner on Germany's Dax (.GDAXI) index of blue chip companies, which was 0.4 percent lower.

As recently as last month, Germany's second-biggest lender was still predicting a slight improvement in net income this year.

Commerzbank posted net profit of 1.06 billion euros (834 million pounds) in the full year 2015, including 187 million euros in the fourth quarter. It reports first-quarter results on May 3.

(Reporting by Jonathan Gould; Editing by Arno Schuetze and Keith Weir)