By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stocks slipped Tuesday, pulling the regional equity index away from the highest finish since early 2008 that it notched in the previous session.

The Stoxx Europe 600 shed 0.1% to 348.33. It ended up 0.4% on Monday at 348.61, the strongest close since Jan. 9, 2008, according to FactSet data.

Stock benchmarks across Europe have reached multiyear or record highs recently in anticipation and in response to a range of easing measures launched by the European Central Bank, which has been grappling with low levels of inflation and lackluster economic growth in the euro area.

Germany's DAX 30 on Monday hit a record close of 10,008.63. On Tuesday, the index slipped 0.1% to 9,997.09, with auto makers BMW and Volkswagen AG each down by 0.8%.

Logging the steepest decline on the Stoxx 600 was Bank of Ireland . The stock fell 2.8% after the lender said U.S. billionaire investor Wilbur Ross Jr. will sell his remaining stake in the company and has resigned as a director.

Booker Group PLC was also hit, falling 3.2% after Goldman Sachs dropped the food wholesaler from its pan-Europe conviction buy list. Sports Direct International PLC was also removed from Goldman's conviction buy list "as the upside to our target price is now lower following a period of good performance. We have higher conviction elsewhere in the European retail sector as a result," said analysts at Goldman. Sports Direct shares were off 0.4%.

The U.K. FTSE 100 index was down 0.4% at 6,847.14, with BG Group PLC shares off 1.4% after Exane BNP Paribas cut its rating on the oil company to neutral from outperform.

In France, the CAC 40 gave up 0.1% to 4,586.21 following three consecutive winning sessions.

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