European stock markets fell on Tuesday, pegged back by a drop in the shares of BASF and Novartis after weak corporate updates from both companies, Reuters reported . The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which had risen to a two-month high on Friday after a Chinese rate cut drove up world stock markets, declined 0.6 percent. The euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index also fell 0.5 percent. BASF shares dropped by 4.4 percent after the chemicals group lowered its full-year earnings guidance due to weak sales in China, Brazil and other emerging markets. Novartis fell 2.7 percent after it reported a fall in third-quarter core net income that missed analyst forecasts. Twenty two percent companies in the STOXX Europe 600 index have announced results so far, of which 63 percent have met or beaten analysts' earnings forecasts and the rest have missed, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data. However, StarMine also shows that only 48 percent companies have met or beaten revenue forecasts.
