FTSE ends week on positive ground

By Rebekah Curtis

LONDON (Reuters) - Blue-chip stocks gained 5.2 percent on Friday as oil shares bounced on recovering crude prices, while pharmaceuticals forged higher as investors bet on upbeat earnings from their Swiss peers next week.

The FTSE 100 closed up 201.6 points at 4,063.0 points, ending 3.3 percent higher on the week. The index shed more than 20 percent the previous week, its worst week since the 1987 stock market crash.

The week's gains follow weeks of brutal losses on world stock markets in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

"While Friday's strength is encouraging, markets still remain nervous about the overall outlook for the months to come so we should not be surprised to see some more hair-raising swings before the month is out," said David Jones, chief market strategist IG Index.

A rolling credit crisis has knocked about 37 percent off the FTSE 100 so far this year.

"We're not out of the woods yet but at least the trees have stopped collapsing around us," said Henk Potts, equity strategist at Barclays Stockbrokers.

"But there's considerable unease about the prospects for the global economy."

Stocks bounced higher across Europe, shrugging off weak and skittish trade on Wall Street.