Oils were again at the top of the FTSE 300 performance charts after another dramatic day for the commodity price. In Europe, November Brent Blend shot through $34 to extend its advance this week to more than 10 per cent. Oil prices in the US showed even steeper gains.

At the close, oil and gas was the second-best performing sector in Europe with Total Fina Elf and Royal Dutch up more than 2 per cent at €183.50 and €75 respectively.

Elsewhere in the sector there was unwillingness to chase high oil prices. The sector investment view remains clouded by broker forecasts of a steep correction for the commodity in 2001. Many brokers remain neutral on oil stocks.

In telecommunications there were more fallers than risers but the main theme was the sheer range of price movements. The Dutch group Completel, a provider of switched local access telecoms and Internet services which has some big investment plans, fell more than 8 per cent to €7.01 and KPN Telecom was off 6.6 per cent to €21.20. But Deutsche Telekom was only slightly lower at €36.40 and Nokia was four cents higher at €37.15, having spent the day in the red.

Amsterdam telecoms company Equant continued to fall, closing 3.7 per cent down at €37.05, a two-year low, following Wednesday's statement from France Telecom that it was not yet ready to take over the company. But France Telecom rose more than 2 per cent to €98.25.

Some media companies were weak, but again the picture was mixed with Paul Richards at WestLB Panmure seeing selective bargain hunting following the sharp falls of the day before. The media, utilities and telecom group Vivendi reacted nervously to the suggestion that its merger with Seagram may face bigger regulatory hurdles than previously thought. The shares were trading 3 per cent up in the morning but ended 1.7 per cent lower at €84.50 after a report in Le Monde suggesting that the European Commission may launch a longer-than-expected inquiry.

Banks bounced back after rumours of junk bond trading losses had kept investment banks under pressure in recent sessions.

Food group Danone outperformed after it reported third-quarter sales that exceeded expectations and confirmed growth targets for the year. Lehman Brothers retained its long-term buy on the stock, saying it remained the quality medium-term play in the sector. Merrill Lynch, by contrast, cut its investment rating on the stock, while retaining it as a long-term buy.