London shares started Thursday on the front foot after upbeat economic news from the eurozone.
The FTSE 100 Index picked up 21.58 points to 6359 while the CAC-40 in Paris rose 27.6 points to 4920 and Germany's Dax lifted 98 points to 11,267.
Bank lending to businesses in the single currency bloc rose by €19bn in October after a drop of €9bn in September.
Meanwhile, bank loans to households continued to trend up gradually in October as the year-on-year growth rate edged up to 1.2% year-on-year, the best since early 2012.
It rose from 1.1% in September, 1% in August, 0.9% in July and 0.7% in June.
IHS Global Insight's Howard Archer said: "While the ECB will take some comfort from the October’s pick-up in bank lending and money supply growth in October, it is unlikely to deter the bank from pressing ahead with further stimulus in December."
In the London market, TalkTalk (LON:TALK) continued its ascendancy after speculation on Wednesday about possible takeover bids from Vodafone (LON:VOD), Deutsche Telekom and Li Ka-Shing's Hutchison Whampoa.
Marston's (LON:MARS) frothed up 5.3p to 164.8p as the pub and brewing group attributed higher annual profits to the success of its growing estate of new-build pub restaurants.
Barclays (LON:BARC) gained 2.9p to 224.4p despite news that it was facing a £72mln fine from UK regulators for failing to carry out enough checks on rich clients.
Elsewhere, Coal of Africa (LON:CZA) heated up 0.25p, or 10%, to 2.75p after it agreed to buy South African miner Universal Coal (ASX:UNV).
Alliance Pharma (LON:APH) will effectively double in size following the planned acquisition of Sinclair IS PHARMA (LON:SPH) for £132.2mln. Shares in Alliance fell 4.75p to 46.25p but Sinclair's stock rose 2.75p to 38.5p.
Pan African Resources (LON:PAF) ticked up 0.19p to 7.2p as it forecast higher half-year earnings due to an improved operating performance from its mines and a better gold price.
MARKET PREVIEW
London’s blue chips are expected to open slightly higher on Thursday morning.
As US markets are closed for the Thanksgiving holiday it is expected to be a quieter day, with trading volumes likely down.
Going into the short break, Wall Street stocks were flat for the most part, with the S&P 500 closing Wednesday’s session just a point higher at 17,813 while the S&P 500 was a slither lower at 2,088.
The Nasdaq Composite, however, tacked on 0.26% to 5,116.
In Asia this morning, Japan’s Nikkei rose about 0.5% to 19,9444 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 0.15% to 22,462.
The Shanghai Composite was 0.28% lower at 3,638.
Investors in the UK, meanwhile, will be looking for any devil in the detail of yesterday’s Autumn Statement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.
A reflex analysis of Osborne’s spending plans gave defence stocks a lift of Wednesday – due increases to military budgets – while house builders were also boosted by pledges to build more homes.
Buried deeper in the report will be implications for other business sectors, and the less publicised elements of the report are dissected there may well be more fallout.
In early trading, spreadbetting and CFD group IG Markets is sees the FTSE 100 up, slightly. It calls the blue chip benchmark about 6 points higher at 6,339 to 6,344.