European shares down

European shares edged lower on Tuesday, pressured by ongoing concerns that the era of plentiful stimulus is coming to an end after the Bank of Japan decided against unveiling any fresh measures overnight, Reuters reported. The BoJ's unchanged policy disappointed some investors who had been expecting measures, such as extending the maximum duration of cheap fixed-rates funds. The news followed on from the European Central Bank last week saying it saw no need for further stimulus measures at the moment, and open discussion from Federal Reserve officials over when would be the best time to start trimming asset purchases under their quantitative easing (QE) programme. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 0.6 percent at 1,186.76 points at 0702 GMT. "Given the lack of action from Japan overnight, that just serves to highlight how the markets are highly dependent on central banks to provide any additional impetus to the upside," said Ioan Smith, strategist at Knight Capital. "Whether it is a complete retraction of all central bank stimulus or just a scaling back ... everybody is trying to front-run it and they are aware that there is only a small window to get out of these trades. It depends on what happens during the summer, but it wouldn't be unhealthy to see a correction of between 5 and 10 percent now."