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European shares extend fall amid mixed earnings

Reuters - UK Focus

* FTSEurofirst 300 down 0.2 pct after higher start

* Extends previous day fall as investors digest mixed earnings

* Next, BBVA, SHB (Shanghai: 600708.SS - news) up after update

* Weak numbers hit BBVA, BAT, Delhaize

By Francesco Canepa

LONDON, April 29 (Reuters) - European shares gave away early gains to trade slightly lower on Wednesday as investors digested a batch of mixed corporate results from bank BBVA and UK retailer Next, among others.

Better-than-expected numbers from Next, Swedish bank Handelsbanken and Dutch nutritional supplements firm DSM (Swiss: DSM.SW - news) had sent main regional indexes to a higher start.

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Yet the early rise quickly fizzled out, with BBVA, British American Tobacco and Belgian supermarket group Delhaize among the biggest drags after disappointing numbers.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 0.2 percent at 1,614.95 points at 0742 GMT. The index had fallen 1.5 percent on the previous day, weighed down by a combination of disappointing corporate updates and weak U.S. data.

With the FTSEurofirst up 22 percent since the start of the year and expectations for first-quarter earnings growth at its highest in years, some traders felt the market was due for a pause.

"If corporate results are good you can continue to see positive openings and some stocks will perform very well but the move yesterday suggests people are taking risk off the table and that can continue at least this week," Mike Reuter, a broker at Tradition said.

Telecom Italia (Other OTC: TIAJF - news) rose 2.4 percent after Italian daily Corriere della Sera wrote Vivendi (Swiss: VIV.SW - news) 's chief Vincent Bollore (Other OTC: BOIVF - news) was aiming to strengthen the company's stake in Telecom Italia and at a later stage strike an alliance with Mediaset . Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in the TV group rose 1.6 percent.

Euro zone lending data for March, due at 0800 GMT, was also set to be in focus as investors gauge early indications of whether the European Central Bank's bond-buying programme is finding its way to the real economy.

Europe bourses in 2015: http://link.reuters.com/pap87v

Asset performance in 2015: http://link.reuters.com/gap87v

Today's European research round-up (Editing by Toby Chopra)