Oil stocks were back in the thick of the action thanks to the cold weather sweeping the US making a belated showing in Europe.

A jump for the commodity price took Brent Blend, the North Sea marker price, back close to the key $24-a-barrel mark.

Sentiment was also supported by demands from some OPEC members for production cuts.

By the close, Royal Dutch and Total Fina Elf had both put on more than 2.5 per cent, rising to €65.79 and €155.9 respectively.

The performance buffed up the gains achieved in the run-up to the Christmas break amid talk of oil analysts upgrading their estimates for average oil prices in 2001.

A weak start on the US Nasdaq market, after an overnight profits warning from computer security service provider Network Associates, dented sentiment towards European TMTs.

Finnish telecom operator Sonera sank 10 per cent to close at a low for the year of €18.01, hit by worries about how it will pay off debt, estimated at around €6 billion, incurred by the purchase of third generation network licences.

Among other tech companies, Terra Networks lost 6.5 per cent to €11.45, UPC fell 4.7 per cent to €10.78 and Infineon gave up 4.3 per cent to €38.33.

KPN Telecom hit a new low for the year of €11.30 as last week's profits warning from AT&T in the US added to the pressure on the sector and funds raised their weightings in defensive stocks.

KPN recovered some of its losses to close 3.5 per cent lower on the day at €12.05.

Seat Pagine Gialle rebounded 5.7 per cent to €2.55 after the expiry of a 1.1 billion share conversion and cash call that had depressed the Italian publisher and portal operator's share price.

Swiss technology group Esec shot up 14.9 per cent to 412 Swiss francs in a technical rebound from lows for the year after the group warned earlier this month of a weak first half in 2001 as semiconductor makers deferred investments.