European shares inched higher on Friday, signalling a possible stabilisation from this week's earlier sell-off as Chinese stocks rose after the country's circuit breaker mechanism was axed to calm investor sentiment, Reuters reported.

By 0816 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 0.2 percent but was still on track for its steepest weekly drop since late August. The euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index also advanced by 0.1 percent.

China's major stock indexes rose sharply on Friday after Beijing ditched a circuit breaker mechanism that had halted trading twice this week, and had been blamed for exacerbating the market sell-offs it was designed to limit.