World stocks marched higher on Thursday, lifted by Greece's confirming payment of a 450 million-euro loan tranche to the International Monetary Fund and growing expectations the U.S. will not raise interest rates until the latter part of the year. European markets also welcomed German industrial output and trade data, which showed the continent's largest economy ticking along nicely in February.

The Greek news and U.S. interest rate outlook soothed global bond market sentiment, too. The benchmark euro zone bond yield on 10-Germany's 10-year Bund fell to a record low of 0.146 percent. At midsession, Europe's EuroFirst 300 index of leading shares was up 0.7 percent at a seven-year high of 1,623 points , putting the index on track for its ninth weekly gain in the last 10.

Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.8 percent at 6,995 points and Germany's DAX was 0.5 percent higher at 12,097 points. "While the risk of a Greek exit remains high, European equities continue to be supported by extremely low core euro area yields which remain at the bottom of recent ranges," Barclays said in a note on Thursday. Figures on Thursday showed that German industrial production rose and imports and exports both grew faster than expected in February. Auto industry figures published late on Wednesday showed the sector's recovery is broadening to France, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Earlier in Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.7 percent to its highest since mid-September. That marks nine straight winning sessions, its best run since September 2013. Japanese stocks rose 0.75 percent to a 15-year high, while Hong Kong powered up 2.7 percent to a seven-year peak. Hong Kong is up nearly 7 percent so far this week, by far its best week since December 2011. Futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street, however, with investors concerned that the recent strength of the U.S. dollar will have a detrimental effect on the first-quarter earnings season, which got underway on Wednesday.