European shares stuck in range as Greece future hangs in balance

* FTSEurofirst 300 down 0.3 pct, Greece's ATG down 0.1 pct

* Investors stay on sidelines due to Greece uncertainty

* Wolseley (LSE: WOS.L - news) up 1.8 percent after posting sales rise

By Francesco Canepa

LONDON, June 2 (Reuters) - European shares edged lower on Tuesday, keeping within their recent range as investors awaited euro zone inflation data due later in the day and developments out of Greece's negotiations with creditors.

Imperial Tobacco (LSE: IMT.L - news) , down nearly 2 percent at 0732 GMT, weighed on the market after the UK group's Canadian subsidiary and two other tobacco companies were sentenced to pay more than C$15 billion ($11.98 billion) in damages to Quebec smokers in two related class action cases.

British plumbing supplies group Wolseley outperformed after it posted a 12.4 percent rise in quarterly revenue, helped by strong performances in all of its key regions. Its shares were up 1.8 percent.

The broader pan-European FTSEurofist 300 index was down 0.3 percent at 1,583.00 points, while Greece's Athex General Composite, which reopened after a three-day weekend, was down 0.1 percent.

The leaders of Germany, France and Greece's international creditor institutions agreed late on Monday to work with "real intensity" in the coming days as they try to clinch a deal in debt negotiations with Athens.

"It (the market) is inside ranges every day although the ranges are quite wide," Justin Haque, a trader at brokerage Hobart, said.

"The real money is still sitting on the sidelines because God knows what's going to happen to Greece."

Investors will be looking out for German unemployment data at 0755 GMT and a euro zone inflation reading due just over an hour later. Inflation expectations for the currency bloc have picked up recently, partly due to rebounding oil prices.

The European Central Bank, which launched an asset purchase programme to stimulate inflation earlier this year and indicated it would run it until September 2016, holds a policy meeting on Wednesday.

The FTSEurofirst 300 has risen 15.7 percent since the start of the year, mainly thanks to the ECB's stimulus programme.

While some investors were now starting to question the market's valuation, strategists at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) saw earnings growth, especially in the euro area, supporting the market.

"Indeed we expect earnings to be the main driver of performance especially for the Euro area and periphery," the strategists said in a note.

"These markets have operational gearing and lead indicators point to earnings improvement; moreover their Shiller P/Es (price to earnings valuation multiples) are below average."

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 Dominic Evans)