Rebound in energy stocks helps lift European equities

* FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.4 pct, bounces after Monday's losses

* Saipem (Other OTC: SAPMY - news) , Salzgitter (Stuttgart: SZGA.SG - news) slide as Russia scraps pipeline project

* SMA Solar, Neopost drop after profit warnings

By Blaise Robinson and Sudip Kar-Gupta

PARIS/LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - European stocks rose on Tuesday, helped by a technical rebound in energy stocks such as BP and Total after crude oil prices bounced from five-year lows hit on Monday.

Shares (Frankfurt: DI6.F - news) in Italian oil services group Saipem and German steelmaker Salzgitter bucked the trend, tumbling 8.2 percent and 8.4 percent respectively after Russia scrapped its $40 billion euro South Stream pipeline link to Europe. The two firms have been involved in the project.

"South Stream is roughly 15 percent of next year's operating profit (for Saipem), and on top of that there was an expectation that there would be some follow-on work," said Alex Brooks, energy services sector analyst at Canaccord Genuity (Other OTC: CCORF - news) .

At 1147 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.4 percent at 1,390 points.

Oil majors BP and Total were up 2.2 percent and 2 percent respectively.

The STOXX Europe 600 energy sector index, rising 1.7 percent on Tuesday, is still down 22 percent since June, hurt by a slump in oil prices, with shares of oil services firms the worst hit.

"The oil services sector has come down massively due to a lack of capex from the oil majors," said Caroline Vincent, European equities fund manager at Cavendish Asset Management.

"If you try and call the bottom to the sector now, it's too risky. It's like trying to catch a falling knife."

However, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said late on Monday that lower oil prices were a positive for the global economy.

"Assuming we have a 30 percent decline (in oil prices), it's likely to be an additional 0.8 percent (in economic growth) for most advanced economies, because all of them are importers of oil," Lagarde said, mentioning the United States, Europe, Japan and China in particular.

Around Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 index was up 1 percent, lifted by the rebound in resource-related shares, and France's CAC 40 was up 0.1 percent, while Germany's DAX index was down 0.2 percent.

Shares in Neopost featured among the top losers, down 16 percent in brisk volumes after the French parcel firm warned on its 2014 outlook.

German solar company SMA Solar fell 17 percent after it also cut its outlook for 2014.

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

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

Today's European research round-up (Additional reporting by Alistair Smout in London; Editing by Susan Fenton)