European shares closed over half a percent lower on Wednesday as tech stocks fell after Apple Computer missed expectations on quarterly revenue while drug stocks had a mixed day with Schering dipping, according to Reuters. The German firm lost over 4 percent after it said it would stop giving uterine fibroid drug asoprisnil to patients in an extension to a late-stage trial due to adverse effects. "This drug is close to dead," said Equinet analyst Martin Possienke. "It's difficult to believe that you can bring a drug to the market for benign tumours that causes complications needing invasive procedures." Other pharmaceutical stocks rose however, after U.S. peer Pfizer won a patent battle while GlaxoSmithKline had already been boosted by an upgrade from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein to "add". The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index unofficially closed 0.68 percent lower at 1,204.6 points, further distancing itself from a 41-month high of 1,242.2 points struck last week. The index cut losses following the Pfizer announcement, which also pushed the Dow Jones Industrial average into positive territory after opening down. The small rise on the Dow was not enough to rally European bourses late on, however, with the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite hit by Apple's figures after-hours on Tuesday. Among leading national indexes, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.7 percent, France's CAC shed 0.8 percent and Germany's DAX tumbled 1 percent. Oil prices, adding nearly one percent to $64.10 a barrel on fears of a rebound in petroleum demand, further undermined equity sentiment.
