The U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX: news, chart, profile) added 0.6% at 5,854, the German DAX Xetra 30 index (DX:1876534: news, chart, profile) rose 0.8% at 5,675 and the French CAC-40 index (FR:1804546: news, chart, profile) increased 0.8% at 5,027.

The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index (ST:SXXP: news, chart, profile) advanced 0.5% at 326 points on broad-based gains across the sectors.

The euro eased 0.1% at $1.2716 against the dollar.

The index gains were helped by oil prices sliding 92 cents to $73.43 a barrel in electronic trade after a United Nations cease-fire between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah went into effect at 1 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time, easing recent political tension in the Middle East.

Media reports say the truce is the first step toward the U.N. and the Lebanese army deploying along the Israeli-Lebanon border.

Oil also was lower as BP said on Friday that it will pump 200,000 barrels of oil a day from the Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska during repairs; BP had initially said it would shut the entire 400,000 barrels a day field.

The Nikkei 225 Average () was down as much as 0.17% to 15,604.05. The Topix index of Tokyo shares was down 0.16% to 1,580.28.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was up as much as 0.33% in early trading, as consumer goods exporter Li & Fung () added more than 3% after reporting strong earnings.

South Korea's Kospi index was up as much as 0.53%, while Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was down as much as 0.6%.

The Japanese government said before markets opened that GDP grew 0.2% in the April through June period, compared to the previous quarter. Economists had expected GDP to grow at about double that rate, but were not troubled by the results.

"It's a negative headline but nothing particularly concerning," said Richard Jerram, chief economist at Macquarie Securities in Tokyo.