Gains in Asian and US stockmarkets helped boost European indices in early trading with UK, German and French markets all moving higher.
The FTSE 100 gained 0.47 per cent as of 8.38am to a comfortable 7,048.06, while the Dax in Germany gained 0.43 per cent and the French Cac 40 added 0.2 per cent.
In Asia the Nikkei 225 briefly passed the elusive 20,000 barrier before falling back to record a 0.15 per cent drop at the end of trading to 19,907.63, although the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 0.66 per cent and the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indices both closed higher with gains of 0.31 per cent and 0.45 per cent respectively.
The boost to the markets comes in spite of mixed economic data, with official Chinese CPI figures recording a 1.4 per cent year on year increase, and a 0.5 per cent decline in CPI on a month-by-month basis in March 2015.
Meanwhile in Europe industrial production data diverged with Spain recording an increase of 0.6 per cent in February on an annual adjusted basis, while French manufacturing output stabilised with a zero per cent change following a 0.3 per cent decline in January.
