Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Friday.
Steelmakers were again in focus after Arcelor said it planned to buy Russia's Severstal. Arcelor fell 3 percent as traders said the deal was likely to thwart a hostile take-over bid for Arcelor from global sector leader Mittal Steel, but other steel stocks such as ThyssenKrupp and Corus jumped.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index closed up 1.84 percent at 1,324.24 points, on healthy turnover of around 3 billion shares.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index ended 76.9 points higher at 5,053.7, down 47.2 points from a week ago.
The All Gold index closed at 2798.71 points, up 49.46 or 1.80 percent, and rising 50.17 since last Friday. The Industrial index closed at 13898.83 points, up 434.88 or 3.23 percent, gaining 198.35 points over the week.