REFILE-UPDATE 2-European stocks pause after third week of gains

(Adds percentage fall for the healthcare sector in paragraph
10)
* Healthcare stocks lead losses
* IQE tumbles after revenue warning; weighs on chip stocks
* German, French, eurozone PMIs better-than-expected

By Medha Singh and Susan Mathew
June 21 (Reuters) - European shares retreated on Friday, led
by healthcare and media companies, at the end of a third week of
gains dominated by signs that the world's big central banks are
on the verge of another round of action to support growth.
Traders said many investors had been tempted to cash in some
of this month's around 4% gain, encouraged by escalating
tensions between Washington and Iran, and the pan-regional STOXX
600 index .STOXX ended 0.4% lower.
It was also a day of "triple witching" where investors
unwind positions in futures and options contracts before they
expire which often leads to large unexpected moves in markets.
There was another jolt for chipmakers early in the day from
British semiconductor wafer maker IQE Plc IQE.L , warning of
lower-than-expected revenue in 2019 as the U.S. ban on Huawei
Technologies spreads through the industry's global supply chain.
The technology index .SX8P fell 0.4%, and was among the
biggest fallers.
Against that were German and French purchasing manager
surveys which both topped expectations but were not enough to
undo expectations that the European Central Bank and others will
need to take action to support growth soon. "Germany's manufacturing sector remains deep in contraction
and the global economic outlook isn't great, so perhaps it's
still a little early for optimism," said Craig Erlam, senior
market analyst at Oanda in London.
The benchmark index .STOXX , is on course to recover almost
all of its losses from a sharp sell-off in May, as the Federal
Reserve and ECB signalled that they were ready to act to counter
the impact of U.S.-China trade tensions on a slowing global
economy.
Investors will now look to a G20 summit in Japan next week
for progress from the United States and China on resolving the
differences that drove the worst monthly performance in European
stock markets in more than two years in May.
Healthcare stocks .SXDP led losses on the STOXX 600, down
1.4% after three days of gains when it added 3%.
Drugmaker Novartis NOVN.S fell 1.1% after a U.S. group
that reviews the value of medicines said the list price for
Swiss drugmaker's new multiple sclerosis drug Mayzent was "far
out of line" compared with its benefits. Paris-listed shares in SES SESFd.PA also tumbled nearly 5%
was the bigger faller on STOXX 600 on talks that the satellite
communications firm could downgrade its second-quarter numbers.
A fall in the pound on growing expectations that hard Brexit
proponent Boris Johnson will become prime minister kept
Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE afloat, pushing up stocks in
international companies who source much of their revenue abroad.
Dublin's ISEQ .ISEQ , which is sensitive to Brexit news,
slipped 1.1%.
Markets in Finland and Sweden were shut for the Midsummer's
Eve holiday.

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