Trading was choppy before a U.S. jobs report later in the day. The report is expected to show U.S. employment growth slowed in January, undercutting the case for a U.S. interest rate increase in March.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was up 0.5 percent at 5,929.25 points in early trading.

"The FTSE is looking steady, and appears to have found support to move away from the lows of the previous month," said Jonathan Roy at Charles Hanover Investments.

Vodafone rose 1.5 percent after Deutsche Bank and Nomura raised their price targets.

However, shares in financial spread-betting company CMC Markets slipped below the company's flotation price after it listed on the London stock market with a valuation of 691 million pounds ($1 billion).

The FTSE remains down by around 5 percent since the start of 2016 and nearly 20 percent below a record high reached in April 2015. A slowdown in China - the world's second biggest economy - and weak oil prices has hit world stock markets.

"The violent swings in the oil markets, combined with ongoing concerns about the global economy, have reinstated a wave of risk aversion which continues to punish the FTSE 100," said FXTM research analyst Lukman Otunuga.

(Editing by Larry King)

By Sudip Kar-Gupta