Europe shares bounce back from 3-month low

At 8:08 a.m., the FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of top European shares rose 0.5 percent to 976.87 points after falling for three straight sessions and closing 2.1 percent lower at 972.10 on Friday -- its biggest weekly decline in 11 months.

Banks were among the top gainers, with HSBC , Barclays , BNP Paribas , Societe Generale , Credit Agricole and Natixis up 1 to 2.5 percent.

"It's a technical bounce. There are still some people who are thinking that this is a good time to buy. You can't forget that a lot of people just missed the rally," said Koen De Leus, economist at KBC Securities.

"But the market is struggling. It seems the market doesn't believe anymore that deficits in the euro zone are sustainable. All the good news is already in the market and it still can go down by 10 to 20 percent."

Over the weekend, European finance ministers tried to assure their counterparts in the Group of Seven that the euro zone's debt crisis is under control. They said they would make sure that Greece sticks with its budget cutting plans.

Energy shares gained after oil prices reversed some of last week's losses and rose from a seven-week low to near $72 a barrel, spurred by bargain-hunting and hopes for a cold front in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region to boost fuel demand.

BP , Royal Dutch Shell , BG Group , Tullow Oil , Repsol , Total and StatoilHydro added 0.5 to 1.4 percent.

Miners got strength from higher metals prices, with copper jumping 2.1 percent, aluminium up 1 percent and zinc rising 3.2 percent. BHP Billiton , Anglo American , Antofagasta , Rio Tinto , Xstrata and Eurasian Natural Resources rose 1.2 to 3.9 percent.

West African-focussed gold miner Randgold Resources rose 5 percent after it said its full-year profit jumped 79 percent and it brought forward the expected start up of production from the Kibali project to January 2014.