* FTSEurofirst 300 <> index falls 1.9 pct
* Commodities fall on lower prices
By Brian Gorman
LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - European shares were lower early
on Monday, after a strong rally last week, with banks and
commodities falling on lower prices.
At 0919 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top
European shares was down 1.9 percent to 846.15 points. It gained
13.3 percent last week, but has lost more than 43 percent this
year, hurt by the global credit crisis and several major
economies going into recession.
BNP Paribas <BNPP.PA>, Barclays <BARC.L>, Credit Suisse
<CSGN.VX> and UBS <UBSN.VX> were down between 2.7 and 5 percent.
"There's a lot of data, but it's not going to be much
better," said Bernard McAlinden, investment strategist NCB
Stockbrokers.
"We think the market will go higher but it won't be because
of anything in the data. It's a question of when the markets can
start ignoring the bad economic news and take the view that
things will get better. Our view is that the stimulus packages
will work."
Miners were lower, on weaker prices, especially for precious
metals.
Anglo American <AAL.L>, Antofagasta <ANTO.L>, BHP Billiton
<BLT.L>, Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. <ENRC.L>, Kazakhmys
<KAZ.L>, Lonmin <LMI.L>, Rio Tinto <RIO.L>, Vedanta Resources
<VED.L>, Xstrata <XTA.L> were down between 2.9 amd 5.2 percent.
OILS FALL
Oil prices <CLc1> fell nearly 5 percent to less than $52 a
barrel after OPEC said it was delaying a production cut.
Total <TOTF.PA>, ENI <ENI.MI>, BP <BP.L>, Royal Dutch Shell
<RDSa.L> and Repsol <REP.MC> were down between 1.1 and 2.9
percent.
Swiss Re <RUKN.VX>, the world's second-biggest reinsurer,
was down 5 percent after Swiss daily paper Cash reported the
company is set to cut about 200 jobs, citing sources.
Cash said Swiss Re confirmed it would make 80 redundancies
in IT and 40 in its Financial Markets segment, but did not
confirm it would make about 100 job cuts in Client Markets and
Products.
Belgian discount supermarket chain Colruyt's <COLR.BR> fell
6.2 percent after it reported late on Friday that profit rose by
less than expected in the first half as cheaper prices drew in
customers, but energy and labour costs ate into margins.
KBC cut its price target on the shares on Monday to 170
euros, from 200, and maintained its "hold" rating.
Spanish builder Sacyr Vallehermoso <SVO.MC> was up 6.3
percent after selling its Itinere <ITIE.MC> highway business to
Citigroup <C.N> infrastructure fund for 7.887 billion euros
($10.20 billion), cutting its debt pile by a third.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 <>, Germany's DAX
<> and France's CAC-40 <> were down between 1.6 and
2.1 percent.
Asian stocks dipped on Monday, snapping a six-day winning
streak. Japan's Nikkei <> closed 1.4 percent lower.
McAlinden said he was looking for both the ECB and the Bank
of England to cut interest rates this week, by 1 percentage
point and half a percentage point, respectively.
"Valuation is clearly not an important factor currently,"
said strategists at Nomura in a note. They said that with the
extreme valuations on offer, they feel it is crucial to try to
ascertain when value will start working again.
They said the sectors with the largest value spreads at the
moment are consumer cyclicals, tech, and media & telecoms.
It named a number of stocks it sees as cheap, including
Aegon <AEGN.AS> and Vodafbne <VOD.L>.
(Editing by Andrew Macdonald)
