Europe shares gain on oils; U.S. data dampens rally

* FTSEurofirst 300 closes up 0.8 pct at 859.58 points

* Oil shares forge higher

* European stocks pare gains after Wall Street slides

By Rebekah Curtis

LONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - European stocks closed higher on Friday as oil shares stormed ahead, but the day's rally lost some steam as weak U.S. data pushed Wall Street into the red.

The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares ended up 0.8 percent at 859.58 points.

But the benchmark index has lost more than 40 percent so far this year as a spreading financial crisis has brought the world economy onto the brink of recession.

Chris Bennett, senior trader at ChoiceOdds, said: "Having seen the highs of the day, it appears that the bargain hunters have had their fill of cheaply priced stocks.

"With no good news on the horizon there appears little to suggest that the markets will go any way other than down next week."

Among oil shares, Total (TOTF.PA), BP (BP.L) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) all rose between 3.2 percent and 3.6 percent.

Among the day's top percentage gainers, shares in French oil services Technip (TECF.PA) added 11.3 percent, one day after the company posted better-than-expected quarterly profits.

Major U.S. stock indexes fell, retreating from a big surge on Thursday and after a government report showed sales at U.S. retailers suffered a record drop of 2.8 percent in October.

Peter Dixon, an economist at Commerzbank in London, said: "Everybody expected a bad number but it's the magnitude of the deterioration that worries people.

"You'd have to be a brave investor to be a bargain hunter now. There are bargains out there, but you'd have to be prepared to hold them for a considerable amount of time."

Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE put on 1.5 percent, Germany's DAX .GDAXI rose 1.3 percent and France's CAC-40 .FCHI put on 0.7 percent.