A late slump in oil prices helped European stocks close at three-week highs on Monday with British Airways leading a rise in airlines, but Dutch bank ABN AMRO fell after a weak operating outlook. Heavyweight oil groups BP and Total pared gains but still provided support to the market. Miners BHP Billiton and Anglo American recovered partially from last week's sharp losses, which were triggered by China's surprise interest rate hike to cool its economy. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 index ended 0.88 percent higher at 1,006.9 points -- its highest close in three weeks. The index finished on Monday just off the intra-day high of 1,008.27. "Oil is certainly giving markets a boost, but volumes are still very thin," said the head of sales at a French brokerage. "No one's really keen to get very bullish until we see a clear verdict from the U.S. elections," the dealer said. The market rally was broad-based. Volumes were light, however, at 1.28 billion euros ($1.6 billion), hit by the All Saint's public holiday in parts of Europe even though most markets remained open. --More 0025 Local Time 2125 GMT
