European shares slip as investors weigh Middle East talks; Alstom tanks

Nov 2 (Reuters) - European shares slipped on Monday as investors weighed diplomatic efforts to end the seven-month long Middle East conflict, while French train maker Alstom tumbled after cutting its full-year margin outlook.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index slipped 0.3% to 645.04 points by 0813 GMT.

The STOXX 600 healthcare sector eased 1% and was the top decliner after logging its steepest monthly gain of 14% since February 1987 on Friday. 

Energy stocks lost 1%, tracking a 3% drop in Brent Crude prices as Iranian and Qatari officials held a third straight day of talks aimed at pushing for a deal to end the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Airlines, that benefit from lower fuel costs, were higher. Lufthansa gained 1.6% and Air France rose 2%.

Alstom's tanked 27% after the company cut forecasts as execution problems on its Coradia Max platform in Germany drove half-year profitability sharply lower. It now expects negative free cashflow for the year compared with a positive forecast earlier.

Chip stocks such as Aixtron gained 2.4% and Infineon added 1%, recovering from a sharp selloff in the tech sector last week following disappointing results from US-based hyperscalers. 

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)