Europe shares fall early as bank worries persist

European shares were lower in early trade on Tuesday, adding to losses from the previous session as investors continued to fret that a recent good run of corporate earnings was not sustainable.

At 0708 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.3 percent at 783.64 points.

Banks were lower a day after Bank of America disappointed investors with its results and raised fresh questions about the sector.

BNP Paribas, Lloyds, Societe Generale and UBS were down between 3.1 and 8.1 percent.

But Britain's Tesco rose 3 percent after the world's No.3 retailer showed its resilience to the economic downturn, posting a 10 percent rise in underlying annual profit to 3.1 billion pounds ($4.6 billion).

"There are still questions about banks' earnings and provisions," said Bernard McAlinden, strategist at NCB Stockbrokers. "The market is likely to give back some more of its gains. It's as positive as you can be to say that we've seen the lows." On Monday, the pan-European index fell 3.5 percent, following six weeks of gains in which it rose more than 26 percent from its March 9 lows.