LONDON’S leading shares index surged to a three-month high as encouraging US jobs figures took the focus away from Europe’s failure to tackle its debt crisis.

The FTSE 100 Index closed up 2% or 125 points higher at 5787.3 after figures showed 163,000 US jobs were created in July – many more than expected – and helped ease nerves over the world’s biggest economy.

Markets in France and Germany also strengthened on the back of the US jobs figures – settling investors’ nerves after markets fell sharply on Thursday when European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi failed to take action to stem the euro crisis, despite having signalled his intention to do so.