Zinc price hike helps FTSE 100 to biggest weekly gain since 2011

The FTSE 100 just posted its biggest weekly gain in four years, thanks to a recovery in mining stocks.

The stock market closed up 0.65% in London at 6,416.16, posting a weekly gain of 4.67%. It's the most since December 2011, when the market surged more than 7% in the depths of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis.

Here's how the FTSE looks:

The leap is pretty much all down to Glencore.

Glencore's share price surged 7% to 129.10 on Friday after announcing cuts to its zinc production by a third in order to boost the price of the metal. The reduction in its operations in Australia, Kazakhstan, and South America will reduce global zinc supply by 500,000 tonnes per year.

Shares in the commodities trading and mining giant collapsed 29% on September 28, but the company has staged a spectacular rebound since.

That sparked a wider rally in mining shares, one of the biggest constituents on the FTSE 100. The FTSE 350 mining index climbed 4.20%.

Here's how the rest of Europe looks:

German DAX: +0.92%

French CAC 40: +0.46%

Euro Stoxx 50: +0.67%