LONDON, Sept 26 - European shares broadly held their ground on Wednesday morning following limited gains on Asian stock markets ahead of a widely expected rate hike by the Federal Reserve in the United States.The pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.03 percent by 0717 GMT after rising during the previous session with energy stocks buoyed by Brent crude prices at four-year highs.The top gainer on the STOXX was France's Bouygues after the stock was upgraded to overweight by JP Morgan.A rating cut by Barclays prompted the worst lost of the index with Belgium's Telenet down 4.6 percent.In the banking sector, Deutsche Bank lost 1.4 percent after a report said it has looked at a theoretical scenario of merging with UBS.
The Swiss bank lost 1.5 percent.