- STOXX 600 index falls 0.3%
- UBS drops on disappointing FY guidance
- Santander down after Q1 results
- Nestle shares jump on sales beat
April 25 (Reuters) - European shares fell on Tuesday, as investors scrutinised more corporate earnings and weighed comments by European Central Bank policymakers on the outlook for interest rates.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.3%, with banking shares shed 1.8% as jitters came back to the fore after U.S. lender First Republic Bank said its deposits tumbled more than $100 billion last quarter.
Miners fell 2%, dragged by Boliden, which lost 5.6% after the Swedish copper miner posted first-quarter adjusted operating profit below market estimates, citing production challenges.
Meanwhile, the food and beverages index rose 0.5%.
"The big picture is that markets are in a bit of a consolidation phase. Economic growth has held up better than expected, and for European companies, corporate earnings have been better than expected and today's a good example of that," said Andrew Bell, chief executive officer at Witan Investment Trust.
"The uncertainty relates to the fact that interest rates are still probably going to rise a little bit further. People are not sure."
Weighing on the index, UBS Group AG lost 2.7% after the bank set aside more money to draw a line under its involvement in toxic mortgages, halving its first-quarter profit.
Spain's Banco Santander SA lost 3.9% after the bank reported a 25% fall in net profit in Brazil, its main market, despite overall net profit rising 1%.
Meanwhile, Nestle SA jumped 1.8% after it reported better-than-expected first-quarter sales.
ABB Ltd climbed 3.3% as the engineering and technology group raised its full year outlook for sales and profit while reporting first-quarter results.
Novartis AG <NOVN.S> was up 2.5% after it raised its full-year earnings outlook, citing a strong growth momentum.
ECB's Philip Lane told a French paper that the central bank will need to raise interest rates again at its policy meeting next week, while board member Isabel Schnabel told Politico that a 50 basis points rate hike is not off the table.
Economists polled by Reuters said the ECB will almost certainly add 25 bps to its deposit rate on May 4 and then take it to 3.50% or higher in June as core inflation remains persistently high.
U.S. heavyweights Microsoft Corp and Google-owner Alphabet Inc will report results later in the day.
Reporting by Shubham Batra in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza
Source: Reuters