The decline is broad, with 24 of the 30 OMXS30 stocks in the red. Engineering stocks are the biggest losers. Sandvik and Atlas Copco have fallen 3.0 and 1.8 percent, respectively.
The education group Academedia is bucking the trend, with a share price increase of 1.4 percent after an interim report.
The broad downward trend is in line with leading European stock exchanges and with overnight trading on leading Asian stock exchanges - where the Seoul Stock Exchange's Kospi index has plunged over 5 percent.
Gold and silver, meanwhile, continue to fall from last week's historic peaks.
Since the turn of the year, the OMXS index has been up 1.0 percent.
