UPDATE 2-European shares tread water with Fed decision looming

* Semiconductors lead gains among tech stocks
* Moncler leads declines among luxury shares
* Fed policy statement due at 1800 GMT

(Updates to close)
By Sruthi Shankar
Sept 18 (Reuters) - European shares ended flat on Wednesday,
as gains for the defensive real estate and utilities sectors
were countered by losses in luxury good makers, with caution
prevailing ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate
decision.
After flitting between small gains and losses during the
session, the pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX closed with a tiny
0.02% gain as investors awaited the U.S. central bank's monetary
policy statement due at 1800 GMT.
With a rate cut from the U.S. central bank near-certain
investors will be focussed on forward guidance, as policymakers
are deeply divided on the need for further easing amid improving
U.S. economic data. "It doesn't seem like there is a lot of expectations for a
particularly dovish announcement," said Simona Gambarini,
markets economist at Capital Economics in London. "We think the
Fed will cut rates today and will follow up with another cut in
December and that will be the end of the easing cycle."
Traders are currently pricing in a 72.7% chance of a quarter
of a percentage point cut, below the 87% chance seen just a week
ago, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.
Stock markets were mixed after the European Central Bank's
move last week to cut rates deeper into negative territory and
relaunch bond purchases with no scheduled end-date.
Defensive sectors were in favour again, with real estate
.SX86P and utilities .SX6P , which tend to move in the
opposite direction to interest rates, rising about 1% and 0.9%,
respectively.
Shares in Italy's biggest utility Enel ENEI.MI jumped 2%,
helping the index of Milan-listed shares .FTMIB outperform its
European peers. The index has gained about 10% from its August
lows, largely due to the formation of a new government.
However, the new government of 5-Star Movement and the
centre-left Democratic Party expects the economy to expand by
only about 0.4% in 2020 after eking out 0.1% growth this year,
sources close to the matter told Reuters. Other major country indexes closed marginally higher,
although Greek stocks .ATG were prominent gainers, up 1.2%,
after a Bloomberg report said the government planned to provide
as much as 9 billion euros ($10 billion) in state guarantees to
help banks reduce soured debt.
The benchmark index has gained about 42% so far this year.
Luxury goods were a weak spot after brokerage UBS downgraded
the sector to "neutral" from "overweight", saying the sector
looked overbought.
"Any catalyst in the form of reduced uncertainty or greater
confidence in the economic cycle could lead to a longer bounce
back in value stocks and luxury goods would be on the wrong side
of this movement should it materialise," UBS analysts led by
Joao Toniato, wrote in a note.
Swiss luxury goods group Richemont CFR.S fell 6%, while
shares in Italian luxury jacket maker Moncler MONC.MI dropped
7% after its chief executive said the ongoing unrest in Hong
Kong could have an impact on its business this year.
other decliners, DHL owner Deutsche Post DPWGn.DE
fell 1.2% following U.S. rival FedEx's FDX.N profit warning
overnight citing the U.S.-China trade war.
Other European mail delivery firms, DSV DSV.CO , Kuehne &
Nagel KNIN.S and Royal Mail RMG.L also fell.
French utility EDF EDF.PA gained 3.2% after it said there
was no need to close any of its nuclear reactors for now
following the discovery of problems with weldings. Apple Inc's AAPL.O component suppliers AMS AMS.S ,
STMicro STM.PA and Infineon IFXGn.DE posted some of the
biggest gains on the European technology subsector .SX8P after
strong pre-orders for the latest iteration of iPhone.
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