LONDON - World stock markets mostly fell Tuesday amid renewed concerns about the banking sector after Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland PLC got more government help and Switzerland's UBS AG booked another massive charge.

Uncertainty about a raft of key economic developments later this week, which culminates in Friday's closely watched U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for October, kept a lid on sentiment too.

"Stocks are registering hefty losses as the market takes risk off the table in the wake of another run of bad news from the banking sector," said Jane Foley, research director at Forex.com.

That raises fears that major economies "will only be able to manage lackluster growth going forward," Foley said.

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 106.52 points, or 2.1 percent, at 4,997.98 while Germany's DAX fell 93.20 points, or 1.7 percent, to 5.337,62. The CAC-40 in France was 73.40 points, or 2 percent, lower at 3,566.06.

Most attention in Europe focused on the banks, particularly Lloyds Banking Group PLC and Royal Bank of Scotland PLC.

Royal Bank said that it was taking an additional 25 billion pounds from the government and joining the government's Asset Protection Scheme. Meanwhile, Lloyds confirmed it was looking to raise at least 21 billion pounds ($34.2 billion) through a record share issue and debt swap, instead of joining the insurance scheme.

As a result, the pair faced differing reactions in the markets. Lloyds was the top riser on the FTSE, up over 1 percent, while Royal Bank of Scotland slid 4.5 percent.

Results from UBS kept the banks in focus across Europe. The Swiss bank reported a third-quarter net loss of 564 million Swiss francs ($542 million) - its fourth straight quarterly loss - after 2.15 billion francs in accounting charges.

UBS shares fell more than 4 percent on the Zurich exchange.

It wasn't just the banks causing concern in Europe. German carmaker BMW AG saw its share price slide over 7 percent after it reported a bigger than expected 74 percent decline in third quarter net income.

Many analysts think that the markets are at a crucial juncture and that stocks, which have rallied for most of the year, could be facing a year-end slide. Over the last couple of months, most of the dips have proved to be short-lived.

"At the moment however, it seems that traders do not have the same conviction that they have displayed previously and rallies from here are proving to be unsustainable," said David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index.

Economic matters will be at the forefront of traders' attention this week. In particular, they will be looking to see what the U.S.