STOCKS NEWS EUROPE-Shares stay lower as U.S. falls

European shares remain lower after the start of trading on Wall Street, which falls after oil giant Chevron (CVX.N) said late on Thursday that it was being hit by weak refining margins.

The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares is down 0.7 percent at 817.90 points, off the day's low of 816.14. Drugmakers are among the biggest losers. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L), Novartis (NOVN.VX), AstraZeneca (AZN.L), Roche (ROG.VX) and Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA) fall betwen 1.2 and 1.9 percent.

The Dow Jones .DJI and S&P 500 .SPX are down 0.5 percent; the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC is flat.

Reuters Messaging: rm://brian.gorman.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net