By Danilo Masoni
MILAN (Reuters) - European shares steadied at 4-week lows on Thursday as investors digested a raft of mixed earnings updates and waited for the European Central Bank's decision on curbing its massive stimulus programme.
Nokia (HE:NOKIA) was the biggest faller, down 13.5 percent, after the Finnish firm reported weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings from its mainstay networks gear business, saying the market had turned more challenging.
"Difficult to say at this stage how much lower consensus could go given all the negative wording on 2018", Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) analysts said in a note.
Banks (SX7P) were also under pressure, down 0.3 percent with Barclays (L:BARC) tumbling as much as 7 percent and set for its biggest one-day fall since the Brexit vote in June 2016.
The British bank posted worse than expected profit before tax for the third quarter of 1.1 billion pounds due to a weak trading performance by its investment bank.
Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) fell 2.2 percent. It posted a 10 percent drop in revenue in the third-quarter, reflecting a weak market and the effects of a major restructuring.
Losses in Nokia and banks, however, were offset by gains among companies including MTU Aero Engines (DE:MTXGn), Neste (HE:NESTE) and STMicro (PA:STM) following strong results.
The pan-European STOXX 600 (STOXX) benchmark index was flat at 387.19 points by 0840 GMT, while Britain's FTSE added 0.3 percent and euro zone blue chips (STOXX50E) declined 0.2 percent.
According to Thomson Reuters data, third quarter earning growth expectations for the STOXX 600 have declined to 3.4 percent from around 10 percent expected in July.
A country breakdown shows that earnings of UK companies in the pan-European index are expected to rise 11.2 percent in the third quarter, compared to a fall of 11.8 percent seen for France and a 0.6 percent drop expected for Germany.
Italy's earnings growth is seen at 35 percent.
A key focus later in the day will be the ECB's policy decision. The central bank is all but certain to cut back on its bond-buying stimulus, taking its biggest step yet in unwinding years of loose monetary policy.
($1 = 0.7554 pounds)