The London market soared as Sky said James Murdoch would return to the broadcaster as chairman.
It also reported operating profit up 12% to £747 million for the six months to the end of December, while it added 337,000 new customers.
The FTSE 100 Index jumped 152 points to 6083.8, bucking a bumpy month for global stocks that has seen large sell-offs due to fears of slowing global growth and oil price slides.
Over January London's top flight has fallen 2.5%, wiping around £37 billion off share prices.
Germany's DAX and Cac 40 in France both lifted by more than 1%. In New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped almost 200 points in early trading.
The pound was down two cents against the US dollar at just under 1.42, after official data showed the US economy eased to an annual rate of 0.7% growth in the fourth quarter, impacted by high inventories and a strong dollar, following 2% annualised growth in the third quarter.
However, most economists expect the US economy to snap back in the next quarter, continuing its six-year long expansion.
Sterling was slightly down against the euro at just under 1.31.
In stocks, Sky lifted 4%, or 41p, to 1082p, amid news of the return of Mr Murdoch. The broadcaster said pre-tax profit fell 2.2% to £524 million, but blamed £223 million of expenses on its purchase of Sky in Germany and Italy.
Oil prices continued to make gains, signalling brighter prospects for world trade.
Brent Crude rose more than a dollar at just below 36 US dollars a barrel.
BP lifted 7.7p to 376.1p, although Royal Dutch Shell fell 25p to 1521p.
BT rode high on the back of its completed deal with mobile operator EE, with the share price climbing 18.7p to 484.9p, a rise of 4%.
The £12 billion mega merger between the two companies was formally completed on Friday, creating a combined business of around 35 million mobile, broadband and TV customers.
It will hand BT 35% of the mobile consumer market and a similar share of the UK's consumer broadband business.
BT will be able to offer bundles of telecoms, TV, broadband and mobile to its customers to compete better with rivals such as Sky and Virgin Media.
However, the company still awaits a review by regulator Ofcom expected next month into the telecoms sector, as it mulls over whether it should split BT networks business Openreach.
Businesses with significant operations in China also made gains after confident overnight trading on Chinese markets led to hopes of an increase in consumer spending.
Burberry, which has looked to capitalise on the appetite for luxury goods from China's rising middle class, jumped 35p to 1195p, while banking giant Standard Chartered rose 11.6p to 471p.
The biggest risers in the FTSE 100 Index were Inmarsat up 54p at 1100p, Old Mutual up 8.3p at 169.7p, Tesco up 7.2p at 173.4p and Hargreaves Lansdown up 56p at 1363p.
The three fallers in the FTSE 100 Index were Glencore down 1p at 89.5p, Antofagasta down 3.8p at 380.2p, and BHP Billiton down 3.2p at 676.4p.
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