European shares led down by Dialog and BHP; Athens outperforms

(ADVISORY- Reuters plans to replace intra-day European and UK stock market reports with a Live Markets blog on Eikon - see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets for site in development. See the bottom of the report for more details) Adds details, updates prices)

* FTSEurofirst 300 falls 1 percent

* Dialog Semiconductor (LSE: 0OLN.L - news) down on outlook cut

* BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) and other mining stocks also fall

* But SocGen, Moller-Maersk rise after results

* Athens outperforms as Morgan Stanley (Xetra: 885836 - news) turns bullish

By Sudip Kar-Gupta and Danilo Masoni

LONDON/MILAN, May 4 (Reuters) - European stocks fell on Wednesday, hovering near three-week lows, with shares in Dialog Semiconductor slumping after it cut its revenue outlook and BHP Billiton stock dropping on news of a lawsuit filed against it in Brazil.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which fell 1.7 percent on Tuesday, was down 1 percent by 1341 GMT.

"We may have the odd move higher, but we remain in a longer-term bear market," Zurich-based ACIES Asset Management's chief investment officer, Andreas Clenow, said.

But Greek stocks bucked the trend, gaining 1.4 percent after Morgan Stanley turned bullish on the country's government debt and upgraded four banks to outperform amid hopes for a positive conclusion to its bailout review.

Dialog slumped 10 percent after the maker of chips used in Apple (LSE: 0R2V.L - news) and Samsung Electronics smartphones cut its revenue outlook as it reported a 58-percent drop in underlying operating profit.

DZ Bank analyst Harald Schnitzer said although the revision was not a surprise "uncertainty surrounding (Dialog's) future performance is growing".

Mining stocks fell as weak copper prices hit the sector.

BHP lagged its peers to decline by 4.3 percent after federal prosecutors in Brazil filed a 155-billion-real ($43.5-billion) civil lawsuit against iron miner Samarco and its owners, Vale and BHP, over the collapse of a dam last November.

One reason for the fall in metals prices has been persistent concerns about a slowdown in China, the world's second-largest economy and the leading global consumer of metals.

"The deflationary pressures remain and it's hard to see markets making much headway at the moment," Berkeley Futures associate director, Richard Griffiths, said.

Among bank stocks, Societe Generale (Swiss: 519928.SW - news) rose 2.9 percent after pledging further cost cuts this year, with the rise lifting sector peers BNP Paribas (LSE: 0HB5.L - news) and Credit Agricole.

AP Moller-Maersk rose 6.3 percent after the Danish shipping and oil group reported a first-quarter net profit above forecasts.

Today's European research round-up

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Mike Dolan, Markets Editor EMEA. (Editing by Louise Ireland)