The index was slowed in early trading by falls in Asia, but when the Dow opened strongly, London followed suit.
At close of play, the FTSE 100 was up 83.50 points – or 1.64 per cent – to 5,165.70.
The Dow Jones at 11:47 EDT (16:47 BST) was up 1.40 per cent to 9,800.17, while the S&P 500 in Chicago rose 1.70 per cent.
Leading the gains was Wolseley up 11.15 per cent – despite reporting a £766 million loss.
However, putting aside one-costs from restructuring pre-tax profits of £293 million beat market expectations.
Legal & General rose 5.26 per cent, office space provider SEGRO rose 4.27 per cent and 3i Group was up 4.18 per cent.
Home Retail dropped 3.18 per cent, Tullow Oil lost 1.53 per cent, BT was down 1.02 per cent and Royal Bank of Scotland lost 0.77 per cent to 51.60p.
Tim Hughes, head of sales trading at IG Index, said the markets were putting aside warnings from Alistair Darling that talk of meaningful recovery was too early.
'With the Dow leading the way by impressively breaking a three day downward streak, confidence seems to be in plentiful supply across equity markets and the overall trend is still positive,' he said.
'UK investors will now be looking for M&A rumours similar to those that have fuelled the Dow’s buoyant performance today; any sign of takeovers will certainly help assuage any residual doubts about the economic fundamentals driving this rally.
'For now though, it seems that investors are happy to take a lead from the US markets.'
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