(Bloomberg) -- European equities opened higher, with oil and mining shares pacing the advance, with optimism spurred by the surprise recovery in U.S. stocks.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.8 percent, trimming its year-to-date decline to 15 percent. BP gained 0.8 percent and Glaxo increased 1.3 percent. The Euro Stoxx 50 Index, which closed in a bear market on Thursday, advanced 0.6 percent Friday.

European equities are set for their worst annual performance since the 2008 financial crisis after political and economic concerns fueled an investor exodus. Boosting sentiment today is the fact that the American benchmark erased a drop of almost 3 percent in an afternoon recovery Thursday, the biggest upward reversal since 2010.

“Calls for a positive open come after another choppy U.S. session where the index trio, which was in the red for most of the day, finished with a late surge and huge reversal to close positive,” Mike van Dulken and Artjom Hatsaturjants at Accendo Markets, said in a note. “All this did, however, was add to what has become a surprisingly volatile end to the trading year, seemingly doing its best to compress 2018’s moves into the space of just a few days.”

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