European shares briefly turn negative; banks weigh

European shares briefly turned negative in afternoon trade on Tuesday, tracking losses in U.S. shares, as financial stocks retreated after recent sharp gains.

At 1358 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 was trading 0.1 percent higher at 855.43 points after falling to a low of 847.25. U.S. benchmark indexes and were 0.1-0.5 percent lower, while the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.2 percent.

Among banks, Barclays was down 6.3 percent, Lloyds slipped 8.9 percent, Royal Bank of Scotland fell 5 percent and UBS shed 5.9 percent.

But traditionally defensive stocks were in demand, with drugmaker AstraZeneca rising 2.8 percent, GlaxoSmithKline up 1.8 percent and Novartis gaining 2.5 percent.