Europe stocks dip early; writedown fears hit UBS

PARIS, March 31 (Reuters) - European stocks lost ground in early trade on Monday, heading for their third consecutive quarter of losses, with Swiss bank UBS (UBSN.VX) falling on renewed worries over asset writedowns.

At 0716 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares was down 1 percent at 1,252.38 points. "This subprime crisis isn't over yet and we might see more writedowns from banks when they report their first quarter results, and that obviously is entangling stock markets," said Franz Wenzel, strategist at AXA Investment Managers, in Paris.

UBS shares fell 3.6 percent on worries about its $5.9 billion exposure to Auction Rate Securities (ARS), a class of structured investments that have suffered liquidity problems in the financial crisis.

Other banks were on the downside, with BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) down 1.4 percent and Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) down 1.9 percent.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson)