European shares rose in thin trade on Monday in the first trading session of 2006, led by stocks such as France Telecom as investors eyed bargains in telecoms after a dismal market performance last year. Trading volumes were, however, a fraction of the daily average as London and U.S. markets were shut for the New Year holiday. Oil companies Total and Royal Dutch Shell both rose, tracking a more than 1 percent rise in U.S. crude oil prices, which ended at $61.0 a barrel on Friday. By 1145 GMT, the CAC-40 index in Paris was up 0.7 percent, while Frankfurt's DAX index added 0.5 percent. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index gained 0.4 percent to 1,280.5 points, after rallying about 23 percent last year, its best annual performance since 1999. Volumes were very light at 175 million shares, compared with average daily volumes of around 2.5 billion shares. "In the weeks of January, we prefer cyclicals, basic resources and oil companies as these are more directly exposed to economic growth," said Cesar Martinez, chief of equities at Spanish fund manager GesMadrid. --More 21 04 Local Time 18 04 GMT
