Buoyed by the novelty of Chinese markets having a positive day, London's blue chips opened higher.
The FTSE 100 was up 57 points, or 0.95%, at 6,008, while the FTSE 250 was up 148 (0.88%) at 16,941.
Top of the Footsie tree was supermarket chain Tesco (LON:TSCO) after Barclays upgraded to an “overweight” rating from “equal weight”.
Among the small caps, green energy company React Energy (LON:REAC) shot up by a third after it secured a €750,000 loan from EBIOSS Energy, a Spanish company that is providing technology for the Newry biomass project in Northern Ireland.
Software company Sopheon (LON:SPE) was wanted, rising 15.1%, after it said the second half of the year had exceeded expectations, meaning earnings [EBITDA] and pre-tax profit would be ahead of previous hopes.
Fantasy miniatures war games firm Games Workshop (LON:GAW) failed its saving throw, tumbling 12.6% after it revealed December sales were below expectations.
Pre-open
The UK’s main index looks set to open higher for the first time this year following four consecutive days of losses.
It follows Chinese stocks and the yuan, which both rose in early trading in a respite from their early year troubles.
The Shanghai Composite lifted 2.3% to around 3,197.
Other markets in Asia were also higher with, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng up around 150 points to 20,480.
Japan’s Nikkei was on the retreat, however, pulling back 69 points to 17,698.
In the UK, the FTSE100 is expected to open 11 points higher at 5,964, following large drops this week.
On Wednesday, the market plummeted around 130 points lower at 5,944,with investors nervous about the situation in China, as trading was halted again amid fears about the country's currency, sending global markets into a tailspin.
With little corporate news out on Friday, all eyes will turn to the US, where the non-farm payroll figures should provide some excitement.
Earlier this week, Automatic Data Processing (ADP) figures, often a pre-cursor for the payroll data, showed private-sector employment gains in the US ramped up last month.
Investors will be hoping for more of the same on Friday, with consensus forecasts for the pay-roll figures to be around 215,000, though if the ADP numbers are anything to go by, this could be blown out of the water.