* FTSEurofirst down 0.8 pct, after recent gains
* Miners fall after weak Chinese trade data
* Carrefour falls after another profit warning
* Rolls-Royce surges on venture stake sale
By Brian Gorman
LONDON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - European shares slipped in choppy trading on Thursday morning, after recent strong gains, with mining stocks among the biggest casualties after Chinese trade data was weaker than expected.
The STOXX Europe 600 Basic Resources Index fell 2.3 percent after top metals consumer China's trade surplus narrowed for a second straight month in September, with imports and exports both lower than expected, reflecting global economic weakness.
"China is lower and slower. You can hear the balloon slowly losing its air. But that's OK. We know it's slowing. There's no reason to panic," said Justin Urquhart Stewart, director at Seven Investment Management.
"But in Europe, maybe the political decisions are finally coming through. Markets have been taking strength, as the underlying value is still there."
At 0853 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.8 percent at 969.29 points, after earlier going into positive territory to as high as 980.34.
The index rose 1.6 percent in the previous session to its highest close in more than nine weeks, buoyed by better-than-expected euro zone output data. It is up more than 13 percent from a low it hit in September, but is down more than 13 percent in 2011, hurt by the euro zone debt crisis.
Euro zone countries will ask banks to accept losses of up to 50 percent on their holdings of Greek debt, officials said on Wednesday, as part of a grand plan to avert a disorderly default and stem a crisis that threatens the world economy.
To restore confidence in the banking system, euro zone leaders are working on plans to shore up the balance sheets of banks through recapitalisations.
The index is bouncing around the 50 percent retracement level of its fall from an August high to the September low.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.6 percent, Germany's DAX and France's CAC40 fell between 0.6 and 0.8 percent.
Some technical analysts remained positive, following the recent rally.
Bill McNamara at Charles Stanley said in a note on the FTSE 100: "Notwithstanding the fact that this rally is being driven by relatively low volumes the outlook has improved as the UK index has pushed up through its short-term downtrend and, at the same time, exceeded its 50-day moving average - taken together, the impression is that, for the moment, the path of least resistance is to the upside."
CARREFOUR FALLS
Corporate news was mixed. Carrefour , Europe's No.1 retailer, fell 5.4 percent after issuing a fresh profit warning, citing an increasingly challenging economic climate that has seen shoppers cut spending at its core French hypermarkets.
Rolls-Royce rose 6.7 percent after Pratt & Whittney said it would buy Rolls-Royce's share of International Aero Engines consortium for $1.5 billion.
Alcatel-Lucent , rose 9.2 percent after the Financial Times reported that the Franco-American communications equipment maker has agreed to sell its corporate call centre services business for as much as $1.5 billion to Permira, the private equity group. (Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters) ============================================================= For rolling updates on what is moving European shares please click on ============================================================= For pan-European market data and news, click on codes in brackets: European Equities speed guide................... FTSEurofirst 300 index.............................. STOXX Europe index.................................. Top 10 STOXX sectors........................... Top 10 EUROSTOXX sectors...................... Top 10 Eurofirst 300 sectors................... Top 25 European pct gainers....................... Top 25 European pct losers........................
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