* FTSEurofirst 300 down 0.6 percent; resumes last week's retreat
* Latest developments in Middle East hit sentiment
* BlackRock fund manager sees good value in energy stocks
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By Blaise Robinson
PARIS, March 1 (Reuters) - European stocks fell on Tuesday after fresh jitters over political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa prompted some investors to cash in a portion of recent lofty gains on banking and energy stocks.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares ended 0.6 percent lower at 1,161.92 points, resuming last week's pull-back that was triggered by escalating violence in OPEC member Libya.
U.S. crude oil futures rose $2 at $98.97 a barrel on Tuesday, lifted in part by a report of Saudi involvement in Bahrain quickly denied by a Saudi official, while clashes between Iran's security forces and opposition supporters in Tehran reported by an opposition website also kept investors on edge.
Europe's STOXX banking index surrendered 1.9 percent, with Societe Generale down 3.5 percent and HSBC down 3 percent. The index, which has strongly outpaced the broad market over the past 3 months, is still up 9.4 percent year-to-date.
Despite the broad market's recent pullback, technical analysts remained positive on equities on the longer term.
"So far, this has been just a mild retreat in an almost uninterrupted rally since the correction we had last May. The market's upward trend is intact, no red flags here, so the dip is clearly a good opportunity to buy," said Vincent Ganne, technical analyst at IG Markets in Paris.
Shares of energy companies lost ground, with BP down 1 percent and Total down 2.1 percent, as concern about the risk of supply disruption on oil companies' results offset the positive impact of rising crude prices.
The 30-day rolling correlation between the STOXX energy index and U.S. crude oil futures, which has oscillated around +0.5 over the past two years, dropped to -0.12 on Tuesday.
Poppy Allonby, co-head of BlackRock's BGF World Energy Fund, sees good value in energy stocks, which have underperformed other commodity-related shares over the past year.
"The sector has never looked so cheap in terms of price to earnings ratios," she said.
"Some of the headwinds the sector had faced during the last few years are turning into tailwinds: the macro environment has improved and the oil market is going to tighten over the next 12 to 18 months. This could be accelerated by the events that we've seen in the Middle East and North Africa."
Around Europe, UK's FTSE 100 index lost 1 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.7 percent, and France's CAC 40 dropped 1.1 percent. (Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Additional reporting by Scott Barber; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)