European shares edge lower

LONDON, Nov 12 (Reuters): European shares edged lower on Tuesday, drifting away from near five-year highs, after a spate of disappointing company updates confirmed the trend of weak demand and poor revenues in the quarterly earnings season.
German chip maker Infineon fell 5 per cent after flagging a revenue drop at all of its units for the current fiscal quarter, even though earnings came in above estimates.
Vodafone, the world's second-biggest mobile operator, dropped 0.6 per cent after reporting a 4.9-per cent drop in quarterly organic service revenue, hit by very weak trading in Europe.
Building materials company CRH managed a 4-per cent gain, the top riser on the FTSEurofirst 300, after revenues rose, although the increase was based on demand from the United States as trading in Europe remained weak.
While half of the 80 percent of Stoxx Europe 600 companies that have reported so far have missed profit forecasts, nearly two-thirds have missed revenue forecasts, according to data from Thomson Reuters StarMine.