London shares built on gains on Thursday as global markets recovered and commodity prices firmed.
UK and mainland European markets recovered this week’s losses after rallying on Thursday morning while futures pointed to another strong open for US stocks ahead of the latest revision to second quarter growth figures.
The FTSE 100 Index rose 135.38 points to 6114, Frankfurt's DAX lifted 272 points and France's CAC-40 increased 116 points.
The Shanghai Composite recovered from earlier losses on Thursday to stand 5.3% up by the close.
But analysts said the rise may not have been all it seemed, with reports claiming that state-directed investors had bought stock to ensure a positive trading close.
Connor Campbell at Spreadex cited reports saying Beijing wanted stocks to rise to prevent any distraction from next week's World War II victory over Japan parade.
The prices of a barrel of Brent and US light crude were both up about 3.5%, taking the latter to just shy of US$40.
In equities, oil giant BP (LON:BP.) benefited from the higher crude price with a 9.55p bounce to 340.75p while Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) gushed 35.5p to 1621p.
Miners were also making progress on the China news and rising prices of gold and copper. Anglo American (LON:AAL) rose 29.8p to 694.1p, Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) strengthened 58.5p to 2258.5p and BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) hardened 36p to 1045.5p.
Speculation that the US Federal Reserve will hold back from raising interest rates next month also lifted sentiment.
Michael Hewson at CMC Markets said: "Now the talk is less of when the Fed will raise rates but more of whether they should, or even whether they should implement further easing in the form of QE4."
Recruitment firm Hays (LON:HAS) rose 2.6p to 156.8p as it reported 17% headline growth in annual operating profit despite a £9.6mln foreign exchange headwind.
Gold miner Petropavlovsk (LON:POG) sparkled 0.04p to 5.74p after forecasting significantly higher second-half production.
Sierra Rutile (LON:SRX) subsided 1.75p to 20.5p on news of a first-half loss, although it said falling costs had put it on track to hit full-year targets.
Atlantic Coal (LON:ATC) heated up 0.12p to 0.2p on news of higher sales and profits from American mines.
Oil services group Lamprell (LON:LAM) leaked 5.5p to 123.75p as it completed fewer major projects than in 2014 and launched a review to adjust costs to lower oil prices.