BP

BP, Europe's largest oil company, fell 1.1 percent to 615 pence. Total, the third-biggest, slid 0.4 percent to 213.1 euros.

Crude oil futures added 0.3 percent to $58.31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after earlier falling as much as 0.7 percent. Prices slumped 0.5 percent yesterday.

New York oil futures have tumbled 18 percent from a record high reached in August, trimming their annual gain to 34 percent. The Stoxx Oil & Gas Index jumped 31 percent in 2005 through last week, the fourth-best performance among 18 industries in the Stoxx 600.

``It's time to reduce some holdings in oil stocks,'' said Friedrich Diel, a fund manager at Frankfurt Trust Investment, which overseas $6 billion in equities. ``Most of the gains in the sector we've seen already.'' Diel said he recently sold shares in energy companies including BP.