European stocks are heading for their best month since 2009

The euro Stoxx 600, which tracks hundreds of the biggest listed companies in the eurozone, opened up slightly higher on Friday morning - and it's heading for its best month since 2009.

According to Bloomberg the index had climbed by more than 8% in October (until Thursday) and it's looking to finish higher still. All of the industry groups covered by the index are higher than they were at the end of September.

It'll even beat the surge seen in January, when the index rose by 7.2%. That was the best start to the year for the index since 1989.

The surge is partly down to some timely help from central bankers.

A lot of October's bump is down to the surge in shares on October 22 and October 23, when European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi dropped the strongest suggestions yet that further quantitative easing (QE) was coming late this year:

The index had a bit of a wobble in the middle of the year, losing some of the gains it made in the Winter as global stocks sold off: