Zodiac Aerospace rockets after Safran bid, European shares retreat

* Europe's STOXX 600 index down 0.4 pct

* Zodiac Aerospace jumps after Safran bid

* Earnings boost Moneysupermarket.com

* Royal Mail falls after results (Recasts, adds quotes and detail, updates prices)

By Kit Rees

LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - European stocks dipped onThursday, though Zodiac Aerospace's shares surgedafter a takeover offer by France's Safran andMoneysupermarket.com also jumped after it reportedstrong results.

Zodiac Aerospace rocketed 21.7 percent afterSafran offered $9 billion to buy the aircraft seat manufacturer.Shares in Safran gained 1.9 percent.

"On a stand-alone financial basis, the acquisition of Zodiacappears pretty attractive, in our view. We venture (to suggest)the planned special dividend may also lend near-term support tothe Safran share price," Sandy Morris, equity analyst atJefferies, said in a note.

Earnings boosted shares in Moneysupermarket.com by6.6 percent to their highest level since March 2016 after theprice comparison website reported better-than-expected fourthquarter and full year revenues. [nL5N1F9251

Dutch-Belgian food retailer Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize also rose, up 3.2 percent after posting strong fourthquarter sales figures.

Royal Mail's results were received lessenthusiastically, its shares falling 6.4 percent and weighing onthe blue chip FTSE 100 index, which dropped 0.7 percent.

Analysts flagged further weakening in Royal Mail's UKletters business as a concern.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.4percent in choppy trade. A 1.3 percent fall in oil stocks also weighed.

Downgrades were a drag, weighing on Gemalto,Ingenico and Rightmove, which all fell between3 to 3.8 percent.

"We're ... entering an earnings season, and I don't thinkit's going to be necessarily one of the strongest ones. I thinkwe're going to see a continuation of the one that we had lastquarter, which was very patchy for many industries," said KenOdeluga, market analyst at City Index.

A meeting of the European Central Bank later in the day wasalso in focus for investors. The ECB is expected to keep policyunchanged.

Overnight, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen signalled thatthe U.S. central bank was poised to pursue a path of steadyinterest rate hikes. (Editing by Gareth Jones)