of-earnings revisions," he said. U.S. stocks fell, hurt by weaker-than-expected manufacturing data and ahead of minutes from a Federal Reserve meeting that are likely to give some clues on when the cycle of interest rate increases will end. The U.S. central bank is set to issue minutes of its December meeting at 1900 GMT. The DJ Stoxx oil and gas sector index led the gainers with a 2 percent jump on hopes the gas row between Russia and Ukraine might spur consumption of heating oil. Gaz de France advanced 3 percent, BG Group gained 3.5 percent, and OMV was up 1.4 percent. "Oil and gas shares are shining at the moment: Rising oil prices are lifting the shares which are also undervalued and offer attractive dividend yields," said Markus Steinbeis, a senior fund manager at Activest in Munich. Around Europe, London's FTSE 100 index advanced 1.1 percent, Paris's CAC-40 gained nearly 0.5 percent, Frankfurt's DAX put on 0.2 percent, and Zurich's SMI rose 0.6 percent. Shares in Volkswagen rose 2.2 percent as sources said that leading German rental car agency Sixt and private equity firm Apax are interested in jointly bidding for Volkswagen's Europcar unit. "Europcar is the most important news as far as the share price is concerned," said Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein analyst Arndt Ellinghorst.
