June 1 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks advanced, paced by energy stocks including BP Plc and Total SA as crude oil climbed to a three-week high.

Oil companies ``can continue to have better-than-expected earnings,'' said Frederic Leroux, who helps manage $3.2 billion at Carmignac Gestion in Paris, including shares of Technip SA. ``It remains a major investment theme for us. The shares can continue to outperform.''

The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index rose 0.3 percent to 267.97 at 8:37 a.m. in London. The Stoxx 50 also gained 0.3 percent, and the Euro Stoxx 50 benchmark for the 12 countries sharing the euro, added 0.4 percent.

BP, the world's second-largest publicly traded oil company, advanced 0.6 percent to 555 pence. Total, Europe's biggest oil refiner, gained 0.7 percent to 180.7 euros.

Crude oil for July delivery rose as much as 38 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $52.35 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Royal Dutch/Shell Group shut two gasoline-making units at a refinery in Texas, heightening concern about auto fuel supply during the U.S. holiday season.

LVMH, ASM

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, a luxury-goods maker that made 26 percent of its sales in the U.S. last year, added 1 percent to 58.6 euros. ASM, Europe's No. 2 maker of equipment to build semiconductors, added 0.8 percent to 11.96 euros.

The euro yesterday fell to $1.2297, the lowest since Oct. 13, according to currency-dealing system EBS. The currency, which rebounded today, is still below its level when European stock markets closed yesterday.

``The weakening euro may be the biggest support for European stocks these days,'' said Francisco Salvador, head of equities at Venture Finanzas SA in Madrid. ``Exporters had a competitiveness disadvantage and this should help them.''

He said stocks including Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica SA, a Spanish wind-turbine maker that sells to the U.S., may benefit from a stronger dollar.

The euro slumped to its lowest in more than seven months following French voters' rejection of the EU Treaty in a May 29 referendum. Surveys show Dutch voters will follow suit today.

``The paradox of the `no' vote is having an effect on the euro, which had been penalizing European exporters,'' said Chloe Magnier, a strategist at CIC Credit Industriel et Commercial in Paris.

T&F Informa

T&F Informa Plc advanced 1.3 percent to 413 pence. The publisher of Lloyd's List shipping newspaper agreed to buy IIR Holdings Ltd. for $1.4 billion to expand its conference organizing and training business.

European Aeronautic, Defense and Space Co., which controls plane maker Airbus SAS, declined 1.1 percent to 23.77 euros. Airbus faces compensation demands from Singapore Airlines Ltd. and Qantas Airways Ltd. because of a six-month delay in delivering its new A380 aircraft.

Voestalpine AG climbed 3.1 percent to 56.44 euros. Austria's biggest steelmaker said fiscal 2005 profit more than doubled as steel prices rose amid demand from countries such as China and India. Net income rose to 323.5 million euros ($398.6 million) in the twelve months ended March 31, compared with 130.5 million euros a year earlier, the company said in an e-mailed statement.

British Sky Broadcasting Plc lost 1.8 percent to 535.5 pence. The U.K. pay-television business controlled by Rupert Murdoch was downgraded to ``underweight'' from ``equal-weight'' at Morgan Stanley. The brokerage cut its share-price forecast 21 percent to 480 pence.

Manufacturing in the dozen euro nations may have contracted for a second month in May, a survey of economists showed. An index based on a survey of about 3,000 purchasing managers compiled by NTC Research Ltd. for Reuters Group Plc probably fell to 49 from 49.2 in April, according to the median of 30 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

To contact the reporter on this story: Adria Cimino in Paris at acimino1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 1, 2005 03:43 EDT