The European Union's statistics office Eurostat said gross domestic product in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter in the April-June period, a 1.5 percent year-on-year rise.

This was a revision of the previously reported 0.3 percent quarterly rise and 1.2 percent year-on-year gain.

Data for German exports and imports hit record highs in value terms in July, climbing 2.4 and 2.2 percent respectively, beating a Reuters poll.

The FTSE 100 was up 1.3 percent at 6,151.65 points at 1406 GMT, lagging its European counterparts, with volumes only at 45.8 percent of its 90-day average and with just over an hour of the trading session still to go.

Although disappointing Chinese import data for August raised concerns about the growth outlook for the world's second-largest economy, some saw it as a sign that China's authorities would do more to support the economy.

"(There is some) hope that you’ve got a lot more stimulus on the way from China," said Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at IG.

Financial companies with exposure to emerging markets led the gainers, with Aberdeen Asset Management (>> Aberdeen Asset Management plc) and British bank Standard Chartered (>> Standard Chartered PLC) all trading up around 3 percent.

They were joined by Hargreaves Lansdown (>> Hargreaves Lansdown PLC), a financial service provider and asset management company, and EM-exposed HSBC (>> HSBC Holdings plc), both up 2.6 percent.

The FTSE 350 banking sector index <.FTNMX8350>, was up 2.1 percent, on track for its biggest daily gain since late August.

Whitbread (>> Whitbread plc) was the biggest faller, dropping 1.9 percent after posting slowing Q2 sales growth. The company, which owns Premier Inn hotels and Costa Coffee, said it expected to cut spending and increase some prices to counter the cost of the higher national living wage.

FTSE mid-caps were led by insurer Amlin's (>> Amlin plc), whose stock surged by 33 percent to an all-time high after Japan's MS&AD (>> Ms&Ad Insurance Group Holding Inc) agreed to buy the UK rival.

Despite figures showing British retail spending stagnated last month, stocks in online retailer AO World (>> AO World PLC) rose 10.9 percent after the company announced the appointment of Mark Higgins as chief financial officer and executive director of the company with effect from Aug. 1.

(Reporting by Kit Rees; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

By Kit Rees