European shares fall as Deutsche Bank leads financial stocks lower

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* Banking and energy shares fall

* Deutsche Bank (LSE: 0H7D.L - news) shares touch record low

* Lanxess (LSE: 0H7I.L - news) surges after announcing Chemtura (Euronext: CHMT.NX - news) acquisition

* K+S shares fall after Deutsche Bank downgrade

* Clinton vs Trump TV debate due later

By Sudip Kar-Gupta

LONDON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - European stocks fell on Monday, weighed down by a pullback in the shares of major banking and energy companies, with Deutsche Bank hitting a record low.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 1.3 percent. The index remains down by around 7 percent since the start of 2016.

The STOXX Europe 600 Banking index fell 2.3 percent, as Deutsche Bank shares touched a record low.

German magazine Focus, citing unidentified government sources, reported on Saturday that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had ruled out state assistance for the lender and rejected any interference in a U.S. justice department investigation.

Deutsche Bank said on Monday Chief Executive John Cryan had not asked Merkel at any time to intervene in the U.S mortgages investigation.

British bank Lloyds also declined 3.1 percent after Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) cut its rating on Lloyds to "sell" from "neutral".

The broader European banking index is down by around 20 percent since the start of 2016 - the worst-performing equity sector in Europe this year - as the industry has been impacted by concerns that negative interest rates will hit the profitability of banks.

"Banks are still in bad shape," said Rupert Baker, a European equity sales executive at Mirabaud Securities.

Baker expected European stock markets to make little progress until the outcome of November's U.S. Presidential election. Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican rival Donald Trump are due to square off in their first televised debate later on Monday.

"We're not really going to go anywhere on European markets until the November election," Baker said.

The STOXX Europe 600 Oil & Gas index also fell 1.5 percent, reflecting a sharp drop in oil prices in recent sessions.

Among other individual stock movers, Lanxess (Amsterdam: LX6.AS - news) surged 8.1 percent after it said it would buy speciality chemical company Chemtura for about2.4 billion euros ($2.69 billion) including debt.

"CEO Matthias Zachert has a very good track record with acquisitions so far and Chemtura seems to be another good one," DZ Bank analyst Peter Spengler said.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in fertiliser company K+S fell 5.7 percent after Deutsche Bank cut its rating on the stock to "sell" from "hold". (Editing by Andrew Heavens and Susan Thomas)