* FTSEurofirst 300 little changed
* Banks rise; Greece fiscal concerns ease
* AstraZeneca down after Recentin trial fails
By Joanne Frearson
LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - European shares were nearly flat
in morning trade on Monday, with gains in banks offsetting falls
in drugmakers as AstraZeneca <AZN.L> slipped after its Recentin
trial did not meet its main goal.
By 0945 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <>
index of top shares was flat at 1,054.43 points. The index which
gained 26 percent in 2009 is only up 0.9 percent so far this
year.
Banks featured among the biggest movers on the index. Banco
Santander <SAN.MC>, BBVA <BBVA.MC>, UniCredit <CRDI.MI> and
Barclays <BARC.L> gained 0.8 to 1.3 percent.
"The market is a little more positive, buoyed by what
happened in the United States on Friday with the non-farm
payroll figures," said Justin Urquhart Stewart, director at
Seven Investment Management.
"There is also a view, that while Europe has not resolved
its problems, the worst of what has happened to Greece has
passed for the moment ... but, that is not to say it can not
come back."
Greece central bank governor George Provopoulos said in a
German newspaper interview released on Monday that Greece will
not need foreign help to deal with its debt problems.
[]
Insurers were in demand, with Prudential <PRU.L> up 1.4
percent.
The insurer this week is set to launch a charm offensive in
an attempt to calm the nerves of its leading investors about its
$35.5 billion agreed bid to buy life insurer AIA in Asia and pay
for it with a 21 billion dollar rights issue, The Times said.
COMMODS GAIN
Miners were higher as metal prices rose. Copper <MCU3=LX>
was up 1 percent after Friday's better-than-expected jobs data
boosted hopes of recovery in the United States.
BHP Billiton <BLT.L> added 1.1 percent as the miner's move
to shorter-term coal prices for steel mills is likely to be
followed for iron ore contracts that could help the company earn
billions of dollars more in annual revenues. []
Anglo American <AAL.L>, Rio Tinto <RIO.L> and Xstrata
<XTA.L> gained 0.2 to 1.1 percent.
Energy stocks were in demand as oil <CLc1> rallied to an
eight-week peak above $82 a barrel boosted by a weaker dollar.
BG Group <BG.L>, Cairn Energy <CNE.L>, Royal Dutch Shell
<RDSa.L> and Total <TOTF.PA> were 0.2 to 0.6 percent higher.
Drugmakers were the major losers. AstraZeneca <AZN.L> fell
1.2 percent after it said its cancer drug Recentin failed in a
head-to-head late stage trial with Roche's <ROG.VX> Avastin on
colorectal cancer patients.
Roche was down 0.2 percent, while GlaxoSmithKline <GSK.L>
and Shire <SHP.L> lost 1.1 and 0.5 percent respectively.
Cash machine specialist Wincor Nixdorf <WING.DE> fell 4
percent after the company's CFO told German daily
Boersen-Zeitung that investors have to prepare for a
double-digit decline in earnings for the ongoing fiscal year.
Salzgitter <SZGG.DE> slipped 1.3 percent after JP Morgan
downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "overweight" to reflect a
gloomy outlook for the steelmaker's tubes business.
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 <>, Germany's DAX <>
and France's CAC 40 <> were little changed.
(Reporting by Joanne Frearson; Editing by Hans Peters)
