European shares drifted to a lower close on Monday, with telecoms leading the declines after France announced plans to sell shares in France Telecom worth as much as $5.5 billion, while oil near $55 also weighed. By 1534 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of pan-European blue chips was unofficially closed 0.3 percent weaker at 1,114 points. Volumes were very thin at around 1.5 billion shares and gainers were outnumbered by fallers by more than two to one. The narrower DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index shed 0.5 percent to 3,098.8 points. Indexes hit three-year highs last week, but have backed off since soft U.S. employment data on Friday rekindled doubts about the strength of the economic recovery there. "The market is lacking inspiration," said Gert-Jan Geels, a fund manager at Eureffect Asset Management in the Netherlands. "It seems clear that the U.S. jobs recovery isn't as strong as everyone was hoping, so now we are waiting for further evidence that company profits are continuing to improve." While earnings have been rising, cost cutting has remained the main driver of growth in a sluggish European economic environment, Geels said. "On paper it looks OK but in most cases, we're not seeing big improvements in turnover." --More 1849 Local Time 1549 GMT
