* FTSEurofirst 300 index down 0.7 percent
* Financials under pressure
* Reed Elsevier rises on upgrade
By Joanne Frearson
LONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - European shares were lower in
early trade on Wednesday, with financials under pressure as
concerns weighed about exposure to Dubai's debt and investor
jitters following Greece's debt rating cut on Tuesday.
By 0943 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <>
index of top shares was down 0.7 percent at 997.60 points. The
index is up 54 percent since reaching a record low in early
March and is up about 20 percent for the year.
"After yesterday, buyers are a little reluctant to come back
in ... we got disappointing PMI's from the UK and Germany and
then the ratings agency downgraded Greece," said Jim Wood-Smith,
head of research at Williams de Broe.
"There is no real reason for anyone to go back into the
market. The year-end wind down and the flattening of traders
books started about a week or so ago."
Banks took the most points off the index on renewed
concerns over exposure to Dubai's debt problems.
Troubled Dubai property unit Nakheel said total liabilities
for the first half of 2009 rose 7.2 percent to 73.3 billion
dirhams ($20 billion), and it made a loss of 13.4 billion as
revenues fell and it wrote down the value of land and property.
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UniCredit <CRDI.MI>, Banco Santander <SAN.MC>, UBS
<UBSN.VX>, National Bank of Greece <NBGr.AT> and Deutsche Bank
<DBKGn.DE> were down 0.9-4.2 percent.
INSURERS WEAK
Insurers were also under pressure. ING Groep <ING.AS>, Axa
<AXAF.PA> and Aegon <AEGN.AS> were down 2.0-2.8 percent.
Energy stocks featured among the worst performers. BG Group
<BG.L>, BP <BP.L>, Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> and Total
<TOTF.PA> were down 0.8-1.1 percent.
On the upside, defensive stocks were in favour. Imperial
Tobacco <IMT.L> and British American Tobacco <BATS.L> rose 0.2
percent and 0.6 percent respectively.
Media stocks were in demand. Reed Elsevier <REL.L> added 1
percent, boosted by an upgrade to 'buy' from 'hold' by Deutsche
Bank which also raised its target price for the Anglo-Dutch
publisher to 550 pence from 450 pence.
Investors will keep a close eye on Britain's pre-budget
report in which finance minister Alistair Darling was expected
to raise taxes for the rich to pay for continued support for the
recession-hit economy and to bring down a record budget deficit.
A Treasury source said Darling will plan to cut borrowing by
more than half over the next four years when he unveils the
report at 1230 GMT.
"The most important element in a pre-budget report is to try
and give the markets confidence that the finance minster has a
credible plan to get us out of this," said Justin Urquhart
Stewart, director at Seven Investment Management.
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 <> index was down 0.5
percent, Germany's DAX <> was 0.8 percent lower and
France's CAC 40 <> fell 0.6 percent.
(Reporting by Joanne Frearson; Editing by Dan Lalor)
