A late-session stabilisation of oil prices helped European shares end mostly in the black yesterday, but food giant Nestle fell heavily amid signs record raw material prices were capping its profitability.

Nordic bank Nordea cheered investors by reporting net interest income and costs that beat analysts' expectations, sending its shares 5.2 per cent higher.

The FTSE Eurotop 300 index inched 0.05 per cent higher to end at 951.9 points, just 1.8 per cent above Monday's 2004 intraday low of 934.72 and some 7.7 per cent below a multi-month high of 1,030.86 points set at the end of April.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index edged up 0.4 per cent to 2,627.4 points in summer-thinned volumes of barely €1.8 billion.

Putting upward pressure on crude prices were fresh threats by rebel militia in Iraq against oil facilities, a fall in US crude stockpiles and evidence from major economies that energy costs are not substantially slowing the economic growth that fuels oil demand.

US oil prices at around $47 a barrel weighed on airlines such as British Airways and dogged market sentiment as investors priced in the risk that high crude prices could hamper economic and earnings growth.

Crude prices, which had spiralled to a new record peak of $47.35 a barrel early in the session, retreated to $46.85 shortly before European bourses closed. Prices were back at $47.08 by 1600 GMT.

Shares in Nestle tumbled 5.1 per cent on news that higher raw material costs - and in particular packaging materials vulnerable to oil prices - had eaten into the Swiss group's first-half results.