hiked interest rates by 25 basis points earlier this week. Though the ECB signalled more hikes were to come, the Fed indicated a potential pause in its monetary tightening.
"Sentiment is more positive today on hopes of global growth returning on a Fed that's less aggressive and perhaps that can stoke a bit of global growth on lower interest rates," said Giles Coghlan, chief market analyst at HYCM.Despite the session's gains, both the FTSE indexes are on course to post weekly declines, as a slew of mixed earnings reports and worries about the U.S. banking sector outweighed hopes of sooner-than-later rate cuts in the U.S and Europe.