LONDON (Reuters) - European stocks ended steady Tuesday as drugmakers AstraZeneca and Roche rose on improving prospects for their cancer drugs, but weakness in U.S. shares weighed on the broader market.

The FTSEurofirst 300 pan-European index ended flat at 1,074.3 points, while the narrower DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index edged down 0.1 percent to 2,983.8 points.

French retailer Carrefour gained 2 percent as brokerage Exane-BNP upgraded its rating to "outperform" from "neutral," and the retailer's chairman said it aimed to keep up a rapid pace of expansion in China.

UK fund manager Schroders rose 5.6 percent after it reported sharp rises in first-quarter profits and revenue and said it was considering possible acquisitions.

"Many players have burnt their fingers in the last few weeks of volatile trading," said the head of equity sales at a French brokerage.

"People are still sticking with defensive themes which have done strongly in recent weeks," he said.

By the close of European trading, U.S. stocks were lower, paring Monday's rally as investors worried about prospects of higher interest rates and slower growth.

Around Europe, London's FTSE 100 closed 0.3 percent firmer, Paris's CAC-40 fell 0.1 percent and Frankfurt's DAX lost 0.2 percent.

After reaching 33-month highs in early March, European equity markets have struggled to scale new peaks due to worries about global growth and rising U.S. interest rates, despite stronger-than-expected corporate earnings growth.

A Merrill Lynch survey of global fund managers on Tuesday showed investors were increasingly gloomy about prospects for the world economy.

"Investors have become a lot gloomier about the prospects for economic growth, corporate profits and margins -- certainly compared with two months ago," said David Bowers, chief global strategist at Merrill Lynch.

Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding put on 0.9 percent after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its Pegasys hepatitis drug and as the drugmaker said it was set to raise its sales forecast for cancer drug Avastin.

AstraZeneca also rose 1 percent as its anti-cancer business got a boost from promising early-stage data on an experimental drug.

Bucking the trend, German drug maker Schering fell 3 percent, adding to Monday's 3.6 percent decline, as brokers downgraded the stock following disappointing results on a trial of key cancer drug PTK/ZK.

Among the day's big losers, Swiss staffing firm Adecco lost 2.7 percent after investment banks UBS and Deutsche Bank cut their price targets for the stock.

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