Europe shares pare losses, track US futures

LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - European shares pared losses by midday on Monday, tracking a slight recovery in U.S. index futures, but were still well into the red as they headed to the end of the worst quarter since 2002.

At 1109 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index was down 0.7 percent at 1,256.97 points, after having fallen as low as 1,240.84, or as low as 1.95 percent.

U.S. stock index futures DJM8 SPM8 NDM8 were trading down 0.2 percent to up 0.1 percent.

Recently battered HBOS HBOS.L shares were among the top weighted gainers, rising 3.4 percent, while AstraZeneca (AZN.L) rose 2.3 percent after positive news on its cholesterol fighter Crestor.

Britain's FTSE .FTSE was down 0.1 percent, outdoing France's CAC .FCHI, which fell 0.3 percent, and Germany's DAX .GDAXI was down 1 percent.

(Reporting by Sitaraman Shankar)