European shares fell in early trade on Thursday after minutes of the Federal Reserve's last meeting raised worries over high stock market valuations, with banks, autos and commodity stocks leading a broad sell-off.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.6 per cent, while UK's FTSE was down 0.7 per cent.

The only sector trading in positive territory was real estate, which was up 0.5 per cent, with British Land among the top gainers after Exane upgraded the stock to outperform.

British oil company Tullow Oil was the leading loser on the STOXX, down 15 per cent, as its shares traded without the rights to subscribe to its 607 million-pound cash call. Energy stocks in general fell after record US crude inventories pushed crude prices lower.

Banks were the biggest loser in Europe, down 1.3 per cent. Autos fell 1.1 per cent to an eight-week low.