By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Traders in London reached for the buy button on Tuesday, sending the benchmark stock index higher for the first time this week.

The FTSE 100 index added 0.6% to 6,301.02, partly recovering from a 0.7% loss from Monday. European stocks also rebounded.

GKN PLC added 2% after the engineering group reported a rise in third-quarter pretax profit.

Oil firms gained, tracking a rise in oil prices. Shares of BP PLC (BP) rose 1.5% and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) picked up 2.3%.

Shire PLC (SHPGY) climbed 2.3% after AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) late Monday formally dropped its plan to acquire the Irish drug maker.

On a more downbeat note, shares of Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC lost 2%, after the consumer-products company cautioned that full-year sales would come in at the lower end of its previously forecast range. Read about more big stock moves in Europe here.

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