LONDON: European shares rose on Friday, with Greek equities among the best performers, led by a rebound in battered bank stocks.
The suspension of campaigning for Britain's referendum on European Union membership also eased some of the selling pressure markets saw this week.
The campaigns halted after a pro-EU British politician, Jo Cox, was killed on Thursday by a man wielding a gun and knife .
The pan-European STOXX 600 and FTSEurofirst 300 indexes both rose around 1.2 percent.
They remained on course to end the week with a loss after falling close to four-month lows on Thursday. Greece's benchmark ATG equity index outperformed, rising 3.9 percent. Alpha Bank and Eurobank Ergasias surged more than 10 percent after Greece got its latest financial aid from European authorities.
"Greece has seen a bit of a bounce after the Eurogroup granted Greece its latest 7.5 billion euros ($8.4 billion)tranche of funding," said Markus Huber, trader at City of London Markets Limited.
Britain, the world's fifth-largest economy, votes on June 23 on whether to leave the EU.
Concern that it will quit the EU has hit stock markets this week, driving investors towards safe-haven assets such as gold and German bunds.
Betting odds show a greater probability that Britain will vote to stay in the EU. But recent opinion polls have put the "Leave" camp in the lead.
"The 'Leave' camp has been ahead in the polls, but that does not necessarily mean they will win the actual vote. We don't want to call the result either way, and I would expect the rally today to soon fizzle out at the start of next week," said Dominic Ryder, senior trader at JNF Capital.
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