European shares slipped on Wednesday, with banks pressured by lingering concern on Greece as Athens begins talks over an emergency loan deal, offsetting gains in tech stocks which rose on strong results from Apple.
By 1058 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.6 percent at 1,097.04 points after rising 1.4 percent on Tuesday. The index has surged around 70 percent since hitting a record low in early March last year.
"The market is looking very tired today. We've had a good raft of corporate numbers out in the last 24 hours and the market insists on selling off with banks and mining stocks heading lower," said Manoj Ladwa, senior trader at ETX Capital.
Banks were among the biggest fallers, with Barclays, HSBC, Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank off 1.1 to 2.5 percent as jitters over an emergency loan package for debt-laden Greece resurfaced.
The IMF's threat of new taxes to cover the cost of any bailouts added to jitters on the banking sector, while action by the U.S. and British regulators against Goldman Sachs also dimmed sentiment.
Greece started talks with EU and International Monetary Fund officials on Wednesday to hammer out details of an economic plan that could offer the euro zone member 40 billion to 45 billion euros to exit a debt crisis.
The premium investors demand to buy Greek government bonds rather than euro zone benchmark Bunds rose to its highest in 12 years on Wednesday.
On the upside, ARM and Infineon jumped 3.3 and 3 percent respectively on market talk of possible interest from larger suitors and after upbeat results from Apple.
Apple's results blew past Wall Street expectations on the back of record iPhone sales, and the company gave a strong revenue forecast, sending its shares up more than 5 percent to an all-time high.
Within the sector in Europe, Ericsson, Logitech, STMicroelectronics and ASML Holding rose 0.5 to 2.7 percent.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 shed 0.3 to 0.9 percent.
SUPERMARKETS STRONG
Food retailers were among the gainers, benefitting by Goldman Sachs's move to up its target on the sector to "neutral" from "cautious".
Tesco, WM Morrison, Jeronimo Martins and Metro AG added 0.4 to 4.8 percent.
Mining companies were lower, as metals prices reversed earlier gains. Anglo American, Eurasian Natural Resources, Kazakhmys, Xstrata and Rio Tinto fell 2.2 to 3.3 percent.
BHP Billiton fell 2.4 percent after reporting lower quarterly production across metals and coal, with copper particularly hard hit.
