(Corrects misspelt surname in next-to-last paragraph.)
* FTSEurofirst 300 flat, Euro STOXX 50 up 0.1 pct
* Saint-Gobain down 3 percent after Groupama placing
* Carrefour hit by profit takers ahead of results
By Francesco Canepa
LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) - Europe's main equity indexeswere little changed on Tuesday, with the construction-materialsgroup Saint-Gobain among the biggest losers, as cautionprevailed before the first-quarter earnings season opens.
Saint-Gobain fell 3 percent as French insurerGroupama sold its 1.8 percent stake in Europe's biggest supplierof construction materials. The shares went for around 44.50euros, a 3.2 percent discount to their closing price on Friday.
"We thought the price was quite low, and we had a fewclients getting out of their positions (in Saint Gobain)," IshaqSiddiqi, market strategist at ETX Capital said.
The stock's decline was among the biggest on thepan-European FTSEurofirst 300, which was flat at1,336.45 points. The euro zone Euro STOXX 50 index was up 0.1percent at 3,187.59 points at 0844 GMT. Both indexes reportedtheir worst daily drop in a month on Monday.
Investors were taking profit on some of the best performersduring a rally in recent weeks, such as French retailerCarrefour. They feared the market had got ahead ofitself and the upcoming first-quarter results would exposefundamental weaknesses.
Shares in Carrefour fell 1.7 percent before the companyreports results on April 10. They had risen nearly 20 percentbetween late January and last week.
The Moulin family, which controls French department storeGaleries Lafayette, said late on Monday it had bought a 6.1 pctstake in the supermarket. The purchase was seen as a vote ofconfidence in Carrefour's strategy, but also triggered someprofit-taking after the recent rise.
"The share rise ... was perhaps helped by the purchase inthe market by the Moulin family, so the shares decline a littletoday," said Christian Devismes, an analyst at CM-CICSecurities.
The family would not be able to increase its stake inCarrefour significantly, he said. "Carrefour is going to reportits quarterly figure the day after tomorrow and nobody expectsgood figures."
Europe bourses in 2014: http://link.reuters.com/pap87v
Asset performance in 2014: http://link.reuters.com/gap87v
Today's European research round-up (Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Larry King)