European shares fell by midday on Tuesday as investors took profits following Monday's gain of more than 3 percent, with energy stocks the biggest losers on the index. By 1136 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares was down 1.2 percent at 775.42 points after being as high as 788.34 points earlier. Howard Wheeldon, strategist at BGC Partners, said: "It is profit-taking after a good day yesterday. There is still a lot of uncertainty in the market, volumes are low." Energy stocks took the most points off the index ascrude CLc1 retreated to around $46 a barrel after rising to over $47 earlier in the session. BG Group (BG.L), BP (BP.L), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSb.L) and Total (TOTF.PA) were down 0.5-2.7 percent. The banking sector was also lower, although individual stocks were mixed. Charlie McCreevy, EU Internal Market Commissioner told a conference that market turbulence should prompt policy makers to reform banking oversight. [ID:nLR93056] UBS (UBSN.VX), HSBC (HSBA.L), Banco Santander (SAN.MC) and ING (ING.AS) lost 1.5-5.7 percent. Barclays (BARC.L) gained 2 percent after jumping 73 percent in the previous session. The bank said on Monday that it was not seeking fresh capital. Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) were up 5.5 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively. But non-life insurers were in the doldrums, with Allianz (ALVG.DE), Munich Re (MUVGn.DE) and Zurich (ZURN.VX) down 2.4-4.2 percent. Across Europe, the FTSE 100 .FTSE index was down 1.8 percent, Germany's DAX .GDAXI was 1.2 percent lower and France's CAC 40 .FCHI shed 1.5 percent. "We were flat at the open and now we are giving back some of the gains we saw yesterday...overall the mood of the past few days has been encouraging, but still we have bad news on the corporate side," said Philippe Gijsels, strategist at Fortis Bank in Brussels.

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