European shares led higher by oil stocks as crude recovers

* FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.6 pct, oil sector up 2.2

* Rebound in copper, crude prices support resources stocks

* Technip (Paris: FR0000131708 - news) up 8 pct after ruling out CGG (NYSE: CGG - news) takeover

By Francesco Canepa

LONDON, Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) 15 (Reuters) - European shares staged a modest recovery on Monday as oil and copper prices rose, pushing up energy and basic resources stocks. Concern about the global economy limited the gains.

Monday's bounce in energy stocks came after a selloff last week, when a glut of crude and the threat of weakening demand caused oil prices to plunge to 5 1/2-year lows.

French oil services group Technip was the top performer on the FTSEurofirst 300 index of pan-European shares , rising 8 percent after it dropped a bid for seismic surveys specialist CGG. The takeover offer had puzzled some analysts, who could see few synergies between the two.

The STOXX Europe 600 oil and gas index, which had fallen over 9 percent last week, was up 2.2 percent at 0923 GMT as Brent prices rebounded from the 5 1/2-year low hit earlier in the session.

Oil and gas majors and services companies were among top gainers on the FTSEurofirst 300, with Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW.L - news) , Total and BG Group (LSE: BG.L - news) up between 3.5 percent and 6 percent.

The recent slide in oil prices, caused by a supply glut combined with weak demand, has a silver lining for the global economy, by lowering fuel costs for consumers and companies.

"I think oil is going to be pretty volatile this week, but stocks are going to push higher, even if oil majors are going to be a drag," Joe Rundle, head of trading at ETX, said.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 0.6 percent at 1,329.36 points at 0924 GMT after falling 5.9 percent in the previous week, its steepest weekly fall since mid-2011.

The basic resources index, which is made up of mining stocks, was up 1.3 percent as copper rose on expectations that China will shore up its economy and on tightening supply.

Away from the resources stocks, Austria's Raiffeisen Bank , which is heavily exposed to eastern Europe, was up 3.7 percent after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was quoted by Bloomberg as saying his country may cut its windfall tax on banks in 2016 or 2017 if it can strike a good deal with the banking sector.

Europe bourses in 2014: http://link.reuters.com/pap87v

Asset performance in 2014: http://link.reuters.com/gap87v

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