The FTSE has bounced 1.8% despite news that the UK has fallen into a deeper recession. Miners led the charge, with gold miner Randgold Resources topping the FTSE leader board, up 383p at £51.70. Vedanta followed it up, rising 48p to 999.5p.
Oil and gas companies were also in demand, recovering losses from recent sell-offs. BP closed the day up 13.1p at 407p, while BG Group was 39.5p higher at £12.69.
Investors were also piling into tech stocks, with ARM Holdings among the top gainers, up 12.8p to close at 495.2p. S&P Equity Research raised its recommendation on the chip designer from hold to buy.
On the downside, packaging group Rexam slipped back by 5.3p to 393.9p.
Michael Hewson of CMC Markets said: "We've seen a more positive session today in Europe, despite some really abject economic data from both the UK and Europe and no real conclusions from last night's EU summit. The fact is, given the sell-off in recent days, none of this data was a real surprise given the economic backdrop across Europe, so to have it confirmed wasn't too much of a shock."
