LONDON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - European shares ended lower on Tuesday, pressured by weaker financial and pharma stocks, with investors selling equities after disappointing sales from U.S. economic bellwether Johnson & Johnson.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares provisionally finished 0.9 percent lower at 996.41 points after trading in a wide range of 993.02-1,006.16 points.
The index, which slumped 45 percent last year, is up 20 percent in 2009 and has surged 54 percent since hitting a record low in March this year.
Financials were among the top losers on the index, with Standard Chartered, HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole falling between 0.3 percent and 3.1 percent.
"You can be thrown in both directions during this time of the year simply because some of the company results are better-than-expected and sometimes results have negative surprises," said Luc Van Hecka, chief economist at KBC Securities.
"It could take a couple of weeks before we really see the underlying trend. So far there have been a few really big disappointments in company results. I still believe that we have a serious push from high liquidity," he added.
Johnson & Johnson posted weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue as sales of prescription drugs and cardiac stents disappointed. While third-quarter profit topped analyst forecasts, that was largely because of cost cuts and lower taxes.
Drugmakers were also under pressure. AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Roche Holding, Sanofi-Aventis and Shire fell 0.2 to 1.1 percent. (Reporting by Atul Prakash)