European shares opened slightly higher on Tuesday, helped by a rise in energy stocks <.SXEP>, while Egg slumped after Prudential ended talks to sell the British Internet bank. Britain's biggest brewer, Scottish & Newcastle Plc , advanced 1.4 percent to 407 pence as it expressed confidence in meeting full-year targets after an 8 percent rise in underlying first-half profit came in line with market estimates. Record high oil prices, which cut into corporate profits, are expected to keep investor sentiment on a tight leash. "Company news flow has been very good, but this just doesn't seem enough to excite markets due to global concerns about terrorism and the oil price," said Hilary Cook, director of investment strategy at Barclays Private Clients.
"We see the markets continuing to trade in a tight band." By 0720 GMT, the FTSE Eurotop 300 index <.FTEU3> of pan-European blue chips was up 0.25 percent at 983.3 points, while the narrower DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index <.STOXX50E> rose 0.55 percent to 2,711.2 points. European stock markets snapped a four-day winning streak on Monday as fears about possible al Qaeda attacks in the United States rattled investors. Standout losers on Tuesday included Britain's second-largest insurer Prudential , which lost 2.9 percent to 439 pence after it decided to keep its 79 percent stake in bank Egg Plc following nearly seven months of talks with potential bidders. Shares in Egg plunged 22 percent to 112 pence. Record oil prices bolstered energy majors BP , Total and Royal Dutch/Shell as the head of the OPEC producers' cartel said there was little the group could do to cool the red-hot market for the time being. U.S. light crude rose 41 cents to $44.23 a barrel, marking the highest level since crude futures were launched on the New York Mercantile Exchange in 1983. Total rose 0.8 percent to 161.1 euros, Royal Dutch added 1.0 percent to 41.8 euros and BP added 0.7 percent to 516 pence. Broker CSFB raised its recommended weighting in energy stocks to benchmark from 10 percent underweight, dealers said. Meanwhile, shares in German drugs and chemicals group Altana AG rose 2.1 percent to 46.2 euros after it reported a rise in first-half earnings before interest and tax, beating analysts' expectations, and reiterated its earnings forecasts.///