European shares hit 7-week low on economic outlook
* FTSEurofirst 300 index falls 1.9 percent
* Energy, mining shares follow weaker crude, metals prices
* Financials, autos slip; but drugmakers advance
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click on [STXNEWS/EU]
By Atul Prakash
LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) - European shares hit a seven-week low on Monday, mainly dragged down by banks, oils and miners, with investors trading cautiously on concerns about the pace of economic recovery and ahead of second-quarter results.
The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares was down 1.9 percent at 826.81 points by 1100 GMT after touching 825.95 points -- the lowest level since May 14.
But the benchmark index, which slumped 45 percent in 2008, is still up 28 percent from its lifetime low in early March.
Energy stocks were among top losers on the index, tracking a 4.5 percent decline in crude oil CLc1 on doubts about the prospects of an early economic recovery and a firm dollar.
BP (BP.L), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSb.L), BG Group (BG.L), Tullow Oil (TLW.L), Repsol (REP.MC), Total (TOTF.PA) and StatoilHydro (STL.OL) shed 2.4-3.4 percent.
"The road to recovery is still going to be incredibly bumpy and there are still some major hurdles to overcome before the markets could get tremendously excited about adding to the rally," said Henk Potts, strategist at Barclays Stockbrokers.
"We need to see some confirmation that the economic recovery is on track and corporate profitability is going to return. And until we get that, we suspect that the market will be in a nervous mood," he said.
Financials also fell. Standard Chartered (STAN.L), HSBC (HSBA.L), Barclays (BARC.L), Lloyds (LLOY.L), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), Societe Generale (SOGN.PA), Commerzbank (CBKG.DE) and KBC Groep (KBC.BR) fell 1.4-9.5 percent.
Miners lost ground as copper prices fell more than 2 percent, nickel was down 3 percent and zinc slipped 2.3 percent.
BHP Billiton (BLT.L), Anglo American (AAL.L), Antofagasta (ANTO.L), Xstrata (XTA.L), Lonmin (LMI.L) and Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC.L) were down 3.4-9.2 percent.
Rio Tinto (RIO.L) fell 4.5 percent in line with the broader market. The miner agreed to sell its Americas food packaging business for $1.2 billion after last week raising $15.2 billion in one of the world's largest-ever rights issues. [ID:nSYD463954]
POOR ECONOMIC DATA
Recent macro-economic data also failed to cheer investors and analysts said the market was cautious ahead of quarterly results.
"There's a feeling corporate results are still going to be poor," said Justin Urquhart-Stewart, investment director at Seven Investment Management, in London.
"People are asking where the growth is going to come from. They're looking at data and noticing it's still getting worse," though not at the same rate as before, he said.
Data from the Sentix research group showed investor and analyst sentiment in the euro zone worsened unexpectedly after three months of improvement. [ID:nBAF001721]
Automakers also skidded on concerns about vehicle demand. BMW (BMWG.DE), Daimler AG (DAIGn.DE), Volkswagen AG (VOWG.DE), Peugeot (PEUP.PA), Renault (RENA.PA), Fiat (FIA.MI) were down 2-3.9 percent.
Porsche (PSHG_p.DE) was down 3.2 percent. The automaker denied a newspaper report which said five more potential bidders have emerged for a Porsche-owned derivatives package which controls around 20 percent of Volkswagen voting shares. [ID:nL6596927]
But pharmaceuticals, generally seen as defensive, gained ground. AstraZeneca (AZN.L), Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA), Roche (ROG.VX) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) rose 0.6-1.2 percent.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE, Germany's DAX .GDAXI and France's CAC-40 .FCHI were down 1.5-1.9 percent. (Additional reporting by Brian Gorman; Editing by Dan Lalor)
