European shares pull back as trading updates disappoint

MILAN, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Earnings updates and dealmaking activity drove the biggest share price moves in Europe on Wednesday as the broader market followed U.S. stocks lower following a strong start of the year.

Britain's Informa (Frankfurt: A114PL - news) dropped 5.4 percent after it made a paper and cash offer to buy UK events organiser UBM (LSE: UBM.L - news) , which shot up 16 percent.

Luxury fashion brand Burberry and educational publishing company Pearson (Xetra: 858266 - news) were among the top fallers in Europe after disappointing trading updates.

Their losses along with weakness in the heavyweight financial and healthcare sectors dragged the pan-European STOXX 600 index down 0.3 percent by 0814 GMT. The UK's FTSE also fell by 0.3 percent.

British contractor Interserve (Frankfurt: 860509 - news) tumbled 10 percent after the Financial Times reported that government ministers are "very worried" and have set up a team of officials to monitor the company following the collapse of competitor Carillion (Frankfurt: 924047 - news) .

Tech was among the few sectors in positive territory, underpinned by a 3.6 percent surge in ASML (Milan: ASML.MI - news) .

The Dutch chipmaking equipment supplier posted better-than-expected net profit in the fourth quarter as customers asked for early delivery of products as semiconductor demand booms.

Despite Wednesday's decline, the STOXX remains close to the 2 1/2 year high hit early this month on confidence over the region's economic recovery and the upcoming earnings season.

"Conditions for a recovery of European equities are there but the over-extension of gains on the S&P 500 represent a risk in the short term," said Anthilia Capital fund manager Giuseppe Sersale. (Reporting by Danilo Masoni; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)