Upbeat Asian economic news helped London traders to shrug off dismal British manufacturing data on Wednesday.
Japanese premier Shinzo Abe hinted at extra economic stimulus while the latest consumer confidence survey saw the headline indicator rising a much stronger-than-expected 1.4pts in August to 41.7, reversing the decline in July.
China also weighed in with signals about possible help for the economy, with the Ministry of Finance pledging to speed up "the implementation and improvement of proactive fiscal policy and related measures…to support stable growth and promote continued healthy economic development."
The FTSE 100 Index advanced 124.3 points to 6270 while the Dax put on 189 points and the CAC-40 gained about 123 points.
The news from the Far East helped markets to offset disappointing UK manufacturing production numbers, which fell to -0.8% against the 0.2% increase expected.
Industrial production saw a similar drop to -0.4% compared to the 0.1% growth forecast and the trade deficit widened substantially to £11.1bn - the biggest in over a year as exports dropped 10%.
Connor Campbell at spread-betting firm said the news was "another damning morning" for Chancellor George Osborne's much-heralded "march of the makers" manufacturing drive.
"It provides further confirmation that the UK economy remains dangerously skewed towards services and consumer growth," Campbell said.
Analysts said the news cast further doubts over the prospect of an interest rate rise this month.
Research analyst at foreign exchange group FXTM, Lukman Otunuga, said: "The main focus for the UK economy will now be tomorrow’s BoE monetary policy decision, with most market participants seeing the possibility of a September rate hike as extremely unlikely."
Oil prices lost early gains to fall into negative territory, with the cost of a barrel of Brent crude dipping 0.6% to US€49.18. A barrel of US light crude also fell 0.6% to US$45.6.
BP (LON:BP.) still rose 4.25p to 344.45p, Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) spurted 25p to 1657p and BG Group (LON:BG.) inflated 17.7p to 1001.5p.
Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV) ticked up 4.5p to 641.5p on news of a 45% rise in profits, although the housebuilder warned of skills shortages and a continuing mismatch between housing supply and demand.
Ryanair (LON:RYA) flew €0.82 higher to €13.76 as the Irish budget airline revised its annual profit forecast up by a quarter on unexpectedly strong summer demand.
Amur Minerals (LON:AMC) shed an earlier rise, dropping 0.25p to 14.25p after the explorer forecast an upgrade to nickel resources at its Kun-Manie deposit in Far East Russia.
Investors logged onto online retail software supplier Attraqt Group (LON:ATQT) by 1p to 59.5p after reporting "significant" first-half revenue growth of 40% to £1.34mln.
Medical group Angle (LON:AGL) was 3.5p healthier at 83p on news of highly encouraging results from using the company's Parsortix blood testing system to carry out a liquid biopsy for breast cancer.