Euro shares pause after rally

Paris - European shares were steady in early trade on Wednesday, pausing after their brisk two-and-a-half week rally, with data showing German consumer morale falling for the first time in more than one-and-a-half years denting investors' appetite for stocks.

Market research group GfK said on Wednesday its forward-looking consumer sentiment indicator, based on a survey of around 2 000 Germans, fell to 8.6 going into September from a downwardly revised 8.9 in August.

At 09:05, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was 0.02% higher at 1 376.99 points. The index has surged about 6% since a low hit on August 8.

The impact from the Ukrainian crisis and tensions between the West and Moscow were visible again in European company results on Wednesday, with Marine Harvest, the world's largest salmon farmer, saying it expected Russian sanctions, which are hurting salmon exporters, to pose short-term challenges.

Its shares fell 1.1%.