U.K. equities closed higher on Friday, with the majority of European markets and many international markets closed for the Labor Day holiday.
Lloyds up 4%
The benchmark FTSE 100 index closed around 0.4 percent higher.
Shares of FTSE 100 component Lloyds closed over 5 percent higher, making them the best performers on the FTSE 100. The came after the bank reported a 21 percent rise in underlying pre-tax profit in the first quarter.
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Miners Anglo American, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Antofagasta were also among the top performers on the index. The basic resources sector is heavily exposed to the Chinese economy and better than expected Chinese data overnight helped the firms post healthy gains.
Anglo American surged to close over 5 percent higher, while Rio Tinto ended nearly 4 percent higher.
U.S. stocks traded higher on Friday, rebounding from Thursday's selloff, as investors kept an eye on higher Treasury yields and economic reports.
Many markets closed
Many financial markets were closed across the world today for International Workers' Day holiday, also known as Labor Day or May Day. The U.K. has a public holiday on Monday, but its financial markets were open on Friday.
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In the U.K., April manufacturing data came in below expectations and failed to match March's figure. Sterling fell slightly after the data release.
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