The London market soared, despite a slump in annual earnings from oil giant Royal Dutch Shell and slashed UK growth forecasts from the Bank of England.

Shell said on an underlying basis its full-year earnings fell 53% to 10.7 billion US dollars (£7.3 billion), and it will cut 10,000 jobs as part of its 49 billion US dollar (£34 billion) takeover of gas explorer BG Group, approved by shareholders last month.

The FTSE 100 Index lifted 61.6 points to 5898.8, as the Anglo-Dutch oil major jumped by 6% on investors' twin hopes for the merger and that crude prices will rise later this year.

Germany's DAX was down 0.5%, while the Cac 40 in France was up by 0.5%. In New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average was slightly ahead in early trading.

Global stock markets have been turbulent since the start of the year, affected by growth fears in China and oil price rises and falls, and their implications for world trade.

Trustnet market analyst Tony Cross said: "This bounce has all the sturdiness and longevity of a paper mache ladder in a thunderstorm."

The pound was a cent down against the euro at 1.30, after the Bank of England slashed its UK growth outlook and kept interest rates on hold once more at 0.5%, as darkening gloom over the global economy pushed further back the prospect of a hike.

The Bank cut its forecast for growth in the UK economy for the next three years, to 2.2% in 2016, 2.4% in 2017 and 2.5% in 2018.

This is down from predictions of 2.5%, 2.7% and 2.6% respectively in its November report.

Sterling was slightly lower against the dollar at just under 1.46.

In stocks, Shell lifted 87.5p to 1525p, while rival BP was up almost 6%, or 18.5p, to 350.9p.

Drug giant AstraZeneca was one of the biggest fallers in the top flight after it posted a profits warning for this year with its blockbuster anti-cholesterol drug Crestor set to lose its exclusive patent in the US.

The Anglo-Swiss firm, which fought off a £69 billion takeover bid from US rival Pfizer in 2014, said sales will suffer "a single-digit percentage decline" this coming year.

It also announced that in 2015 the business made a core operating profit of 6.9 billion US dollars (£4.7 billion), down 1% compared to the year before, as a number of cheaper generic drugs entered the US market over the last 12 months.

Shares fell 6% or 269p to 4143p.

Mobile phone giant Vodafone notched up its sixth consecutive quarter of revenue growth, lifted by a strong performance in emerging markets.

The group saw organic service revenue - a closely watched measure of sales - rise 1.4% to £9.2 billion in the three months to the end of December, beating the 1.2% rise in the previous quarter.

Shares slipped 2.7p to 210.3p.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 Index were Anglo American up 54.6p at 328.3p, Glencore 13.7p at 99.7p, Antofagasta up 54.7p at 430.3p and BHP Billiton at 69.4p at 712.6p.

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 Index were AstraZeneca down 269p at 4143p, Coca-Cola HBC down 78p at 1322p, Imperial Tobacco down 130p at 3598.5p and Johnson Matthey down 64p at 2343p.