By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks rose Friday, notching a third-straight week of gains, with EasyJet PLC cruising among the session's best performers as it filled more of its airline seats.

The FTSE 100 rose by 0.7% to 6,695.55, and closed the week up by 1.2%.

The FTSE, along with other major European equity indexes, climbed to intraday highs after a Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung report that the central bank has modeled bond buying over one year, and that asset purchases would raise inflation by 0.2 to 0.8 percentage point.

ECB President Mario Draghi on Thursday said at a news conference that officials have discussed quantitative easing, an indication the bank could use unconventional measures to tackle low inflation.

U.K. stocks held to higher ground after the U.S. Labor Department said the economy created 192,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.7%, as more than a half-million people joined the labor force in search of work. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected an increase of 200,000 jobs, and a dip in the unemployment rate to 6.6%. Employment gains for February and January were revised higher.

Contributing to FTSE 100's rise on Friday were shares of EasyJet PLC , up 2% after the company said the number of passengers it carried in March rose 4.8% to 5.1 million from the same month a year ago. Load factor, or the percentage of seats filled with passengers, rose to 91.5% from 90.5% a year earlier.

EasyJet's March traffic suggests momentum, said Credit Suisse analyst Neil Glynn in a note Friday. With volumes for carrier Ryanair Holdings PLC down due to the timing of the Easter holiday, "we consider this a strong performance on a tough comparative," Glynn wrote.

Also advancing in London, shares of British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines Group settled up by 1.5%.

Miners, banks and insurers were also higher, including a 3.5% rise for RSA Insurance Group

But shares of Tesco PLC fell 1.5%, with the grocer saying its chief financial officer, Laurie McIlwee, is resigning from the company and the board. The statement came after a Financial Times report that McIlwee was preparing to step down as early as next week as the company faces another steep drop in profit. McIlwee will remain in his role until the board finds his successor.

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