London shares ended higher on Friday, mirroring gains in Asia ahead of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings focused on global economic strains.
The FTSE 100 index of leading companies added 0.69 percent to end at 6,286.59 points.
Markets rose in Asia as dealers kept an eye on the G20 gathering of world central bank and finance chiefs in Washington, which concludes later Friday.
Japan is expected to try to reassure other finance ministers and central bank governors at the meeting that it is not intentionally weakening its yen.
The Bank of Japan earlier this month unleashed a huge stimulus package to kickstart its economy and bring an end to years of deflation, but the move has led some to claim Tokyo is looking to give its exporters a trade advantage.
“It’s a bright start of the last trading session this week, with investors inspired by Asia,” said Gekko Markets trader Anita Paluch.
“The economic calendar is rather empty today, apart from G20 and IMF meetings.”
Back on the London stock market, the mining sector rebounded from sharp losses earlier this week that were sparked by the poor Chinese growth data.
Eurasian Natural Resources bounced back from Thursday’s sharp losses to top the blue chip risers, adding 26.63 percent to 291, followed by fellow miner Vedanta Resources, which added 6.08 percent to end at 1,151.
Global engineering group IMI was the day’s biggest faller, slipping 1.59 percent to 1,174, followed by British plumbing and heating firm Wolseley, which shed 1.01 percent to 3,133.
Shares in Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) were the most traded stock, seeing 107 million units change hands, followed by Vodafone, which saw 96.06 million switch owners.
On the currency markets, sterling fell to $1.5231 at 5.12 pm from $1.5302 at the same time on Thursday, while it also fell to 1.1660 euros from 1.1687 over the same period.
FTSE 100 shares end higher
