Europe shares fall led by Italian stocks

Paris - European shares fell in early trading on Monday, trimming some of the previous session's sharp gains, following soft macro data from China and Japan while Italian shares dropped after S&P downgraded the country's credit rating.

Milan's MIB index was down 0.7%, with Banco Popolare down 1.3% and BMPS down 0.9%.

S&P on Friday cut the country's sovereign credit rating from BBB to BBB-, just one notch above junk, citing weak growth and poor competitiveness which undermine the sustainability of its huge public debt.

At 08:06 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.4% at 1 399.68 points, after surging 1.8% on Friday.