European shares end lower, led by the banks

LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - European shares ended lower on Tuesday as investors concerns intensified about the global slowdown with banks leading the index lower.

The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares was down 1.7 percent at 838.76 points at provisional close having been as low as 828.68 points earlier.

"Markets are pricing in a greater European slowdown than perhaps imagined towards the end of last year and are selling off," said Peter Dixon, UK economist at Commerzbank.

"It is a realisation that the data flow over the last few weeks has been universally awful out of Europe," Dixon said.

Banks led the losers on the index. Barclays (BARC.L), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and HBOS HBOS.L were down 3.7-10.1 percent.

Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) fell back 0.9 percent on talk Deutsche Post (DPWGn.DE), which was down 6 percent, could take a stake in the group as part of a deal to complete the sale of Deutsche Postbank (DPBGn.DE), a source with direct knowledge of the matter said. [ID:nWEA1486]

Deutsche Post and Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

Deutsche Postbank soared almost 12 percent. (Additional reporting by Peter Starck in Frankfurt) (Reporting by Joanne Frearson)