Stocks appeared to be giving up the start of a positive trend after Friday's higher close. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index (ST:SXXP 235.92, -1.59, -0.67%) fell 0.4% to 236.54, while the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,659, -34.15, -0.93%) slid 0.5% to 3,672.76, the German DAX index (DX:DAX 5,443, -73.98, -1.34%) fell 0.9% to 5,464.58. There was little news on the corporate front. Shares of L'Oreal (FR:OR 68.00, -1.50, -2.16%) were down 1.5% at 68.08 euros after ING reportedly recommended a sell on those shares. Pharmaceutical and biotech shares were also weaker, with heavyweight Bayer down 0.7%. German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim told Dow Jones Newswires that it plans to submit its potential blockbuster Pradaxa for approval for use in stroke prevention in the U.S. and Europe in the fourth quarter on the back of positive trial results. Bayer AG (BAYR.Y 61.30, +0.23, +0.38%) (DE:BAY 42.13, -0.79, -1.84%) makes a rival drug Xarelto and both drugs are approved in Europe for preventing clots after hip and knee replacement. Staying on drug stocks, shares of Sanofi-Aventis (SNY 34.53, +0.31, +0.91%) (FR:SAN 47.74, -0.41, -0.85%) were down 0.4% after a study showed that AstraZeneca's (AZN 46.30, -0.49, -1.05%) (UK:AZN 2,840, 0.00, 0.00%) Brilinta blood-thinning pill works better than Plavix from Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY 22.12, -0.66, -2.90%) . The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows the AstraZeneca pill had produced a 16% drop in heart attack and stroke deaths among patients. AstraZeneca now plans to file for regulatory approval for Brilinta during the final quarter of the year. The drug could be available as soon as end-2010. AstraZeneca (SE:AZN 328.00, -4.50, -1.35%) also trades in Stockholm, where shares were last trading up 1.2%. Meanwhile, shares in China dropped sharply, with the Shanghai Composite closing 6.7% lower on concerns of a fall in bank lending, which helped drag Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index down 1.9% in late trading.

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