Europe stocks hit 4-mth closing high; oils gain

By Toni Vorobyova

LONDON, May 7 (Reuters) - European shareshit their highest close since mid-January on Wednesday as record crude boosted heavyweight oil groups, builders and techs gained from strong results, and a weakening euro supported exporters.

Sentiment on the health of the world economy was supported by a bigger-than-expected rise in first quarter U.S. non-farm productivity. Inflation-wary equities also took heart from news that unit labour costs in the sector rose less than anticipated.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index ended 0.8 percent higher at 1,362.11 points, with gainers outweighing declining stocks by two to one.

"It's been a great day (for European equities)...the economic newsflow certainly in America has been a bit better than expected and that's been encouraging," said Mike Lenhoff, chief strategist at Brewin Dolphin.

"The earnings newsflow has not been as poor as had been expected, which has also been a bit of a support," he added.

The euro fell towards a six-week low against the dollar <EUR=>, making European equities more attractive to foreign investors.

The technology sector was the best performer in Europe after Cisco Systems (CSCO.O: Quote, Profile, Research), the largest U.S. maker of routers and switches that direct Web traffic reported better-than-expected quarterly results late on Tuesday.

Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research), Ericsson (ERICb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research) and ASML (ASML.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) all gained between 3.6 and 3.9 percent.