* FTSEurofirst 300 falls 0.7 pct after gains on Monday
* Financials slip ahead of key U.S. earnings results
* Cadbury jumps after accepting Kraft's takeover offer
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click on []
By Atul Prakash
LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - European shares retreated on
Tuesday as banks slipped ahead of key earnings results, but
Cadbury <CBRY.L> hit record highs after the British confectioner
accepted a $19.2 billion takeover offer from Kraft <KFT.N>.
At 0926 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top
European shares was down 0.8 percent at 1,052.55 points after
gaining 0.8 percent in the previous session. The index, which
rose 26 percent last year, has jumped 63 percent since hitting a
record low in March of 2009.
Banks were among the top losers, with Standard Chartered
<STAN.L>, HSBC <HSBA.L>, Barclays <BARC.L>, Lloyds <LLOY.L>,
Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L>, BNP Paribas <BNPP.PA> and
Societe Generale <SOGN.PA> down 0.8 to 2.7 percent.
"With the U.S. markets open once again ... we could see a
volatile session in today's trading," said Owen Ireland, analyst
at ODL Securities, referring to a U.S. holiday on Monday.
"In addition to this, results from IBM and Citigroup could
give both the bulls and the bears plenty of ammunition to move
markets. The sheer number of companies reporting this week could
make this a pivotal period."
Citigroup <C.N> and IBM <IBM.N> are set to announce results
on Tuesday, while Bank of America <BAC.N> and Morgan Stanley
<MS.N> numbers are due on Wednesday. American Express <AXP.N>,
Goldman Sachs <GS.N> and Google <GOOG.O> results are expected on
Thursday and General Electric <GE.N> figures are due on Friday.
Cadbury rose 3.7 percent as Kraft Foods announced an offer
to buy Cadbury for around 11.9 billion pounds after it offered
more cash in late-night talks to break a four-month impasse over
price. The deal would create the world's largest confectionery
group ahead of privately owned Mars-Wrigley. []
RISK APPETITE FALLS
Investor appetite for risky assets such as equities fell,
with the VDAX-NEW volatility index <.V1XI> rising 2.3 percent.
The higher the index, which is based on sell and buy options on
Frankfurt's top-30 stocks <0#.GDAXI>, the lower the market's
desire to take risk.
Energy shares also came under pressure, tracking a drop in
crude oil <CLc1> prices. BP <BP.L>, Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L>,
BG Group <BG.L>, Tullow Oil <TLW.L>, Repsol <REP.MC>, Total
<TOTF.PA> and StatoilHydro <STL.OL> shed 0.1 to 1.4 percent.
But telecommunications shares, generally seen as defensive
stocks, were in demand. Vodafone <VOD.L>, Deutsche Telekom
<DTEGn.DE>, TeliaSonera <TLSN.ST>, KPN <KPN.AS> and France
Telecom <FTE.PA> rose 0.3 to 1.1 percent.
Among individual movers, brewing giant SABMiller <SAB.L>
fell 3.4 percent after missing forecasts. It reported flat
third-quarter worldwide underlying beer volumes as consumer
demand was varied with some regions showing signs of recovery
and others subdued. []
Alstom <ALSO.PA>, the French maker of power equipment and
high-speed trains, fell 3.6 percent after it cautioned that the
timing for future bookings remained uncertain, but said order
intake improved in its fiscal third quarter. []
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 index <>, Germany's
DAX <> and France's CAC 40 <> fell between 0.7
percent and 0.8 percent.
(Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)
