London's premier index rebounded into positive territory on Monday as investor jitters eased over the stand-off between the United States and North Korea.
The FTSE 100 Index closed up 43.93 points to 7,353.89, with mining giants helping to push the market higher despite a mixed economic update from China.
Copper miner Glencore was among the biggest risers, lifting 9.9p to 331.9p, while BHP Billiton rose 25p to 1,361p.
It comes after more than £27 billion was wiped off the value of blue-chip stocks on Thursday, sending the FTSE 100 to its biggest daily fall since April 18 this year.
Across Europe, Germany's Dax was 1.3% higher and the Cac 40 in France rose by 1.2%.
David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said European investors had seen signs of improvement in the tensions between the US and North Korea.
He said: "The stand-off is far from over, but traders are taking their cues from Washington DC which is hoping to pursue a political end to the tense situation.
"We heard over the weekend the US isn't interested in regime change when it comes to North Korea, and investors are bargain hunting on the back of this.
"Mining companies like Glencore, Anglo American, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are some of the biggest gainers on the FTSE 100 today even though China's data overnight failed to impress investors.
"The industrial production, retail sales and fixed asset investment figures from China showed the economy is growing at a slower rate than economists expected."
On the currency markets, the pound was down 0.3% against the US dollar after the greenback strengthened on hopes that tensions between America and North Korea will cool.
Sterling was 0.1% up versus the euro at 1.10.
The price of oil continued to sink - dropping 0.7% to 51.56 US dollars a barrel - amid concerns that slower economic growth in China will hamper demand.
In UK stocks, Thomson-owner TUI Group was the biggest riser after being handed a broker upgrade from under perform to neutral by Credit Suisse. Shares climbed 59p to 1,290p.
Outside of the top tier, John Menzies saw its share price jump by more than 1% after a £40 million merger between the firm's distribution arm and DX Group was scrapped.
Shares rose 10p to 7130p following a stock market announcement saying it did not believe it could agree terms that would interest John Menzies shareholders.
For that reason, despite the "strong strategic and commercial benefits" of the tie-up, the deal has been "terminated".
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 Index were TUI Group up 59p to 1,290p, Glencore up 9.9p to 331.9p, Convatec Group up 6.3p to 292.2p, Standard Charered up 15.7p to 769.3p.
The biggest fallers were Experian down 22p to 1,495p, G4S down 3.4p to 296p, Marks & Spencer down 3.6p to 323.5p, Provident Financial down 20p to 1,956p.