* FTSEurofirst 300 slips 0.3 percent
* Credit Agricole gains, Dexia lower
* Beverage sector down, utilities gain
* For up-to-the-minutes stocks news, click on
By Simon Falush
LONDON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - European shares fell 0.2 percent by midday on Thursday as gains in pharmaceuticals and utilities were outweighed by weakness in the beverage sector after Diageo lowered its profit target.
By 1102 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 of top European shares was down 0.3 percent at 971.02 points, after ending a four-day winning run on Wednesday.
The index is up 16.7 percent this year, and has surged more than 50 percent from a lifetime trough set in March and analysts are confident that further gains are in store.
"The trend of the last few weeks looks set to continue, if not at the same pace," said Lars Kreckel, equity strategist at Exane BNP Paribas.
"A lot of people are still under-invested in equities and are looking to push back into them which should ensure shares won't see any downside ... as long as data stays positive."
Diageo shed 4.1 percent after the world's biggest spirits group met forecasts with a 10 percent rise in full-year earnings, but cut its profit target for the current year. lost 3.9 percent.
GDF Suez led utilities higher, up 2.6 percent after, late on Wednesday, the French power and gas group reported first-half core earnings in line with expectations and confirmed financial and cost-cutting targets.
Banks were mostly higher, with Credit Agricole gaining 4.6 percent after France's biggest retail bank posted better-than-expected second-quarter profit, helped by higher earnings at its investment banking and asset management divisions.
Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Societe Generale and UBS put on 0.7-1.9 percent.
Natixis surged 16.9 percent after it was upgraded by brokers following news in the previous session that state-backed bank BPCE will provide a safety net of 35 billion euros ($50 billion) of toxic assets at the bank.
But Dexia, bailed out by several European governments last year, shed 6.4 percent after saying late on Wednesday that its restructuring was proceeding well as it posted its second consecutive quarterly profit. HSBC and Barclays also fell.
MIXED SIGNALS
However, while equities were steady, other signals pointed to a return to concern about the state of the global economy. Japan's yen, which tends to gain at times of economic adversity, strengthened to its highest level in more than a month against the dollar and sterling while Japan's Nikkei fell 1.6 percent.
Analysts said that investors fretted that a rally in risk assets since March may have run ahead of a recovery in the global economy and on worries about the outlook for Chinese shares, which eased 0.7 percent.
But in Europe the outlook seems to be brighter.
German consumer sentiment rose to its highest level in 15 months heading into September, the GfK market research group said, as lower prices and a stable labour market left consumers more willing to spend.
Investors will watch U.S. Q2 GDP data and jobless claims due at 1230 GMT for further evidence that the global economy is pulling out of recession.
German drugmaker Bayer fell 2.9 percent, with traders pointing to concerns that peer Boehringer Ingelheim may report strong data about its rival drug to Bayer's anti blood-clotting medication Xarelto.
But GlaxoSmithKline and Astrazeneca added 1.6 and 1.3 percent respectively.
K+S meanwhile lost 3.5 percent as market participants pointed to talk that the salts and fertiliser company may need to increase capital, though the company declined to comment.
In the auto sector, Volvo dropped 2.8 percent after the world's second-biggest truckmaker said shipments fell 54 percent year on year in July as the economic downturn weighed on demand for commercial vehicles across the globe.
Renault fell 2.1 percent.
Among other individual movers, French hotel group Accor surged 7.2 percent after saying it was considering splitting the company in two autonomous units for its prepaid services and hotels, as it reported a big drop in first-half pretax profit.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 were down 0.2 and 0.1 percent respectively and Germany's DAX fell 0.7 percent. (Reporting by Simon Falush; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)