Europe shares briefly turn positive as U.S. gains

European stocks rose briefly in late afternoon trade on Thursday, as gains in oil shares and a rally on Wall Street helped to overshadow investors' nagging concerns about a looming recession.

At 1506 GMT the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index had slipped again, down 0.2 percent at 872.16 in volatile trade. The index had risen to a day's high of 884.43 in late trade, and earlier hit a day's low of 845.75 points.

Major U.S. stock indexes gained between about 1 and 2 percent in early U.S. trade as investors scooped up hammered energy stocks.

In Europe, oil shares BP and Royal Dutch Shell both added about 5 percent as crude rose 3.5 percent.

Banks were the biggest fallers, with heavyweights Santander down 5.2 percent, UBS falling 7.6 percent and Barclays down 3 percent.