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London - European stock markets rose on Tuesday, helped by a rebound in energy stocks after crude oil prices bounced late on Monday from five-year lows.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which fell on Monday after six days of gains, was up 0.91% at 1 397.88 points.
The eurozone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index advanced 0.3% to 3 242.59 points. Germany's DAX also edged up 0.1% to 9 975.01 points - putting the DAX just 1% below its June record high of 10 050.98 points.
Oil majors such as BP, Total and Royal Dutch Shell all rose by about 2% to add the most points to the FTSEurofirst.
Among standout losers, German solar company SMA Solar fell 17% after it cut its outlook for 2014.
"The weight of money does seem to want to come back into the stock markets, and we're more likely to drift up going into the end of the year than drift down," Monaco-based McLaren Securities managing director, Terry Torrison, said.
Oil has plunged by close to 40% in the past five months in its longest string of monthly losses since the 2008 global financial crisis.
However, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said late on Monday that the falling oil prices were a positive for the global economy as a whole, and although it has affected energy stocks, it has also given a lift to travel stocks and should have a positive impact on consumer spending.
READ: Oil price fall good news for world economy: IMF
European stock markets have also been supported by the prospect of new economic stimulus measures from the European Central Bank (ECB) to boost the region's sluggish economy.
The ECB meets on Thursday and while traders polled by Reuters did not expect the bank to announce any new measures this week, investors said the likelihood that it will take action next year was helping to prop up European stock markets.
"The market is holding up because it's looking for more quantitative easing from the ECB," Central Markets Investment Management's head of trading, Darren Courtney-Cook, said.
