Europe shares close flat; banks up, oils fall

LONDON, Dec 23 (Reuters) - European shares closed flat on Tuesday, with a late dip in the crude price hurting oils, while banks rose, but with volumes low in the last full trading day ahead of the Christmas break.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 0.04 percent to close unofficially at 809.49 points.

Banks closed higher. Barclays (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Deutsche Bank DBGKn.DE rose and 1.3 and 1.5 percent, respectively.

Among utilities, shares in GDF Suez (GSZ.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and Veolia (VIE.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) were up 3 and 6.1 percent respectively.

Analysts played down the significance of today's movements, due to the low volumes, and said the market was already looking ahead to next year.

"We've been talking for some time about a bear market rally," said Philippe Gijsels, senior equity strategist at Fortis Bank in Brussels. "It's perhaps mot surprising that defensive companies like utilities have gone up."

Crude CLc1 fell in late trade, and was down $1.68 at $38.23, extending Monday's losses. The price of crude has fallen 73 percent since hitting an all-time high of $147 in July.

Oil shares, which had boosted the index earlier in the session, finished mostly lower. Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) fell 1.3 and 1.6 percent respectively.

Across Europe, Britain's FTSE .FTSE was up 0.2 percent, France's CAC .FCHI fell 0.7 percent and Germany's DAX .GDAXI was down 0.2 percent. (Reporting by Brian Gorman)