Europe shares briefly turn negative; miners up

European shares turned briefly negative in early trade on Monday as drugmakers weighed, but gains in miners supported as metal prices rose.

By 0857 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares was up 0.1 percent at 1,055.30 points after earlier being as low as 1,053.75.

Drugmakers fell. AstraZeneca dropped 1.1 percent after the company said its cancer drug Recentin failed in a head to head late stage trial with Roche's Avastin on colorectal cancer patients.

Miners were higher as metal prices rose. Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto were up 1 to 1.2 percent.