Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.5 percent on Friday as strength in miners, buoyed by rebounding metal prices and positive broker notes, outweighed some weakness in banks.
By 0857 GMT the blue-chip index was 23.08 points higher at 4,368.55 after sliding 122.94 points in the previous session.
The index is down 1.8 percent this year but is still 25.8 percent higher than a six-year trough set on March 9.
Miners gave the biggest lift to the index after seeing sharp falls the previous session, lifted by recovering metal prices and upgrades from Goldman Sachs and price target hikes from Credit Suisse.
Rio Tinto, Kazakhmys, Eurasian Natural Resources, Anglo American, Xstrata and BHP Billiton gained between 1.3 and 4 percent.
Investors will closely watch the second reading for UK first-quarter GDP due at 0830 GMT after ratings agency S&P revised its outlook for the UK to negative from stable on Thursday, weighing heavily on investor sentiment and adding to equity weakness.
"We had a bit of a reality check yesterday after all the joyous enthusiasm…it's all very well having some supposed green shoots but the underlying issues are still there," said Justin Urquhart-Stewart investment director at Seven Investment Management.
Banks were mixed, with Standard Chartered, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group adding 0.6 to 2.6 percent, but the sector was dragged down by heavyweight HSBC sliding 1.6 percent.
British Airways dropped 6.7 percent the heaviest top-flight faller after it reported a record loss, nearly doubled its debt and cancelled its dividend. The Bank of England faces a tricky call in deciding how to tighten monetary policy as the economy recovers, and would not rush into hefty gilt sales, Deputy Governor Charles Bean said on Thursday.
Even if the low-point in economic activity was not far off, the strength of any economic recovery was uncertain and likely to be relatively low, Bean said in a speech to manufacturers in Sheffield, northern England.
Liberty International was among the heaviest blue- chip fallers, down 5.4 percent after it announced the results of a share placing.
Overall, trading volumes were thin ahead of a long public holiday weekend in the UK and the U.S.
