European shares lose ground as Novartis and BASF fall

European shares lost ground on Wednesday, impacted by a drop in Swiss drugmaker Novartis and German chemicals company BASF after their weak earnings updates.

Royal Bank of Scotland also fell more than 2 percent after the bank warned its profits would be hit by a pension charge and U.S. litigation provisions, while a forecast of lower revenues from Apple impacted technology stocks.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down by 0.6 percent, while the euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index fell 0.8 percent.

Novartis fell 2.7 percent after its fourth-quarter core net income missed analyst expectations, while BASF weakened by 2.9 percent after issuing a profit warning.