Britain's top share index ended 1.9% higher on Tuesday as strong gains on Wall Street and by major oil companies offset more turmoil in the financial sector.
At the close, the FTSE 100 index was up 76.39 points at 4,208.55.
The index shed 2.4% on Monday, and is still down 36% for the year to date.
Crude oil rose above $US55.50 per barrel on Tuesday in choppy trade. BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and BG Group all rose between 3.9% - 4.1%.
European shares ended higher after a choppy session. The FTSEurofirst 300 index was 0.95% higher at 845.37 points. It is down 44% to date this year.
Pharmaceutical stocks also gained, with GlaxoSmithKline rising 4% and Novartis putting on 1.9%.
In Frankfurt, the DAX index ended at 4579.47 points, up 22.2 or 0.49%.
In Paris, the CAC-40 index closed at 3217.4 points, up 35.37 or 1.11%. The Swiss market index closed at 5675.58 points, up 29.15 or 0.52%.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei slipped 2.28%, 194.17 points, to close at 8,328.41.
In Hong Kong, shares shed 4.54%. The Hang Seng Index finished down 613.64 points at 12,915.89.
Australia & NZ
In Australia, stocks fell 3.55%. The S&P/ASX 200 index ended down 129.8 points at 3,523.2 - its lowest close since August 2004.
The All Ordinaries lost 126.4 points, or 3.47%, to 3513.1, led down by resource and banking stocks.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the December share price index contract was 173 points lower to 3523 on a volume of 34,217 contracts.
The New Zealand market closed down, with the NZX 50 index dipping 27 points to 2714 on turnover of $56 million.
Telecom finished down 8 cents at $2.34, Contact Energy was down 5c to $7.20 and Fletcher Building was up 8c to $5.72.
Lion Nathan was down 28c to $9.92 after the brewer and wine maker reported a 4% rise in profit before one-offs rose to $A278.3 million for the year to September.
Rakon lost 7c to close at $1.04, sliding further after a poor half-year result last week.
The New Zealand dollar was trading at US55.07 cents, 85.32 Australian cents, 36.79 pence, 53.2 yen and 0.4367 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was 56.34.
