European shares closed higher on Friday as oil prices continue to fall.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares provisionally closed 0.3% higher at 1,189.61 points.
Stocks were pushed into positive territory by the release of manufacturing data in the United States.
Oil stocks fell as the price of crude more than $US2 a barrel to around $US112.50. BP, Shell and Total lost between 0.7% - 2.2%.
Around Europe: Germany's DAX rose 0.1% and France's CAC added 0.7%.
However, in Britain, The FTSE 100 fell 0.77%, or 42.6 points, to 5,454.8 points after a 0.9% rise on Thursday.
Italian markets were closed for the Assumption Day holiday. On Thursday, the All Share Mibtel index closed at 22,104 points.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei rose 0.48% in thin trade, adding 62.61 points to end at 13,019.41.
In Hong Kong, shares fell 1.09%. The Hang Seng Index ended down 232.13 points at 21,160.58 - its lowest level in nearly five months.
NZ & Australia
The New Zealand stockmarket had a positive day on Friday.
The NZX 50 index was up 17 points to close at 3351 on turnover of $123 million.
Telecom was down 4 cents to $3.24, Contact Energy was up 7c to $8.57 and Fletcher Building was up 25c at $6.99
Michael Hill International rose 2c to $0.89 after its annual profits rose 20%.
Steel & Tube was up 10c to $3.25 after reporting a fall in full year profit on Thursday.
New Zealand Farming Systems Uruguay was down 2c to $1.78 while New Zealand Finance was unchanged at 40c after picking a lower profit for the March 2009 year.
New Zealand Oil & Gas was up 2c to $1.49.
In currency markets: the New Zealand dollar was trading at US69.69 cents, 80.67 Australian cents, 37.38 pence, 76.82 yen and 0.4719 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 65.04.
Australian stocks were up slightly. The Australian 200 index was up 2 points, to 4983.
