TheFTSE 100 rose 0.8% on Friday to close at 5,189 as bank and commodity stocks bounced back from the previous day's big losses.
Banks were the largest contributor to the recovery in the index, with HSBC, Barclays, Standard Chartered and Lloyds adding between 0.9% and 2.6%. But RBS went against the trend, slipping 0.8% as talk circulated about an $8bn lawsuit from an American property developer.
Miners were helped by a positive sector review from Goldman Sachs. Randgold Resources, Xstrata, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Vedanta Resouces gained between 0.3% and 2.7%.
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Energy stocks, meanwhile, were helped by a rise in crude prices to over $74/barrel. Royal Dutch Shell, Tullow Oil and BG Group put on between 0.6% and 1.1%.
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Europe
Markets in Europe were also stronger on Friday, with the Paris CAC 40 adding 51 points to 3,739, and the German Xetra Dax climbing 68 points to 5,609.
US
In the US, theDow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.52% to 10,067; the S&P 500 lost 1% to 1,074; and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.45% lower at 2,147.
Asia
Overnight in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 nudged up 0.1% to 10,205, while the broader Topix index lost 0.3% to 899. In China, stocks closed at their lowest in 3 months, with the Shanghai Composite falling 1.6% to 2,941 and CSI 300 index losing a similar amount to 3,153.
Commodities
Brent spot was trading at $71.42 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $71.60. Spot gold was trading at $1,083 an ounce, silver was at $16.31 and platinum was at $1,516.
Currencies
In the forex markets this morning, sterling was weak, trading against theUS dollar at 1.5913 and against the euro at 1.1443. The dollar was trading at 0.7191 against the euro and 90.39 against the Japanese yen.
UK news
And this morning in the UK, home loan approvals unexpectedly dropped in December for the first time in a year, according to Bank of England figures. Hometrack, meanwhile, said that home property values rose for a sixth month running in January but by only 0.1%.
