* FTSEurofirst 300 index down 1 percent
* Miners fall as growth worries weigh
* Spain's Criteria jumps on La Caixa plans
* For up-to-the minute market news, click on []
By Joanne Frearson
LONDON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - European shares fell on Friday on
concern growth may be crimped, as protests in Egypt escalated
and a pick-up in U.S. consumer spending failed to excite markets
in the face of a weaker-than-expected overall GDP figure.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top
shares closed down 1 percent at 1,143.63 points, its lowest
close since Jan. 20, after gaining the previous two sessions.
"Consumer spending was good in the GDP data, but unless the
overall growth figure is above expectations it is not going to
get the market moving," Heino Ruland, strategist at Ruland
Research in Frankfurt said.
Underpinning the late sell-off was investor caution about
access to the Suez Canal, crucial to Europe's imports of oil and
Asian goods, as clashes escalated between government forces and
protesters demanding the removal of President Hosni Mubarak.
"Egypt is driving investors to get out of riskier assets
ahead of the weekend. There is ongoing unrest and investors
think it is wiser to get out now," a London-based trader said.
U.S. GDP gained 3.2 percent in the final three months of
2010, a touch below expectations. Consumer spending posted its
biggest gain in more than four years. []
Miners were on the decline as investors stuck to a cautious
view on the global economy. Vedanta <VED.L>, Anglo American
<AAL.L> and Kazakhmys <KAZ.L> fell 2.3 percent to 4.5 percent.
Crude <CLc1> jumped 4.3 percent on the Egypt worries, but
oil stocks fell as concerns weighed about what the unrest could
mean for future growth prospects. BG Group <BG.L>, Cairn Energy
<CNE.L> and Petrofac <PFC.L> lost between 3.2 and 4.2 percent.
Elsewhere on the downside, French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis
<SASY.PA> fell 3.8 percent after BSI-201, an experimental drug
to treat a type of advanced breast cancer in its research
pipeline failed in late-stage clinical trials. []
TUI Travel <TT.L> lost 4.5 percent after French broker
Natixis downgraded its rating for European's biggest travel
company to "neutral" from "buy".
Spain's Criteria <CRIT.MC> jumped 16.9 percent on news of La
Caixa's plans to transfer its banking business -- which accounts
for about 8 percent of Spain's banking system -- to the publicly
listed holding company.
Spanish property companies also surged after the news. Reyal
Urbis <REYU.MC>, Metrovacesa <MVC.MC>, Colonial <COL.MC> and
Quabit <QBT.MC> were up 2.1 to 9.8 percent. []
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 <> index was down 1.4
percent, Germany's DAX <> was 0.7 percent lower and
France's CAC 40 <> was 1.4 percent.
(Reporting by Joanne Frearson; Editing by David Hulmes)
