European stocks closed higher on Thursday, recovering from a three-session losing streak due on strong Oracle results that pushed technology shares higher as energy stocks rose along with oil prices.

However, shares for banks remained under pressure amid concerns over the troubled U.S. subprime mortgage market. UBS and HBOS fell 0.8 percent and 1 percent respectively.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index closed 0.27 percent higher at 1,486.51.

France's biggest retail bank, Credit Agricole, said the current global credit crisis would impact its 2007 results and lead to further write-downs as it sees the impact of different measures to be around 1.6 billion euros.

Energy companies' shares made gains as U.S. crude oil came closer to $92 a barrel. Royal Dutch Shell increased 2 percent while BP and Total rose 1.2 percent and 1.3 percent respectively.

Tech shares had a boost with France's Capgemini increasing 2.7 percent. Alcatel-Lucente, Nokia, and SAP gained 1.6 percent, 2.1 percent and o.4 percent respectively.

Pharmaceutical stocks increased with GlaxoSmithKline rising 0.6 percent, Bayer gaining 1.4 percent and Novartis AG closing at 0.6 percent.

The FTSE100 increased 1 percent while Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 gained 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent respectively.