STOCKS NEWS EUROPE-Heineken retreats from six-month high

Shares in Heineken (Other OTC: HEINY - news) , the world's third largest brewer, dip in mid-session trading after an initial gain, with some negatives to be drawn from its first-quarter trading update.

The shares are down 1.4 percent at 50.47 euros at 1005 GMT, having earlier risen as much as 1.8 percent to a six-month high. By midsession, they are among the weakest performers in the FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European stocks.

"Vietnam is probably close to 40 percent of their Asia profits. They're saying it was a difficult comparison from last year and there's a macro slowdown ... If you were bearish you'd seize on that," Andrew Holland, beverage analyst at Societe Generale (Paris: FR0000130809 - news) , says.

The shares are still the best performers in the year-to-date among the big four brewers - AB InBev, SABMiller (LSE: SAB.L - news) and Carlsberg (Other OTC: CABGY - news) .

"There has been some recognition in the share price that Heineken is now a beneficiary of recovery in Europe ... Short-term players will take some profit. I think there's still quite a discount rating versus the rest of the sector and I think that can narrow further on a longer term basis," Holland says.

Reuters messaging rm://philip.blenkinsop.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net