Share indexes have risen on hopes the European Central Bank will step up its purchase of European government bonds.
The UK's FTSE 100 share index was up 0.7%, with Germany's Dax adding 0.4%. Earlier, Japan's Nikkei share index had closed up 1.8%.
Some analysts expect the ECB to announce an expansion of its bond-buying programme after its latest rate-setting meeting on Thursday.
So far it has spent 67bn euros (£56bn; $88bn) on purchasing government bonds.
Global investor sentiment has also been cheered by reports that the US government is prepared to see more International Monetary Fund money used to help indebted eurozone countries.
The euro was steady against the dollar at $1.3105 in early Thursday trading, following its biggest one-day rise in more than a month on Wednesday.
Against the pound, one euro was worth 84.16 pence, down slightly from 84.26 pence at Wednesday's close.
The ECB's briefing will following its latest interest rate decision, which is due at 1245 GMT,
Spanish sale
Spain's government carried out a bond auction on Thursday, raising 2.47bn euros from the sale of three-year bonds.
However, like Portugal's bond auction on Wednesday, Spain had to increase the yield on offer, in this case to 3.7% from 2.5% in its previous auction in October.
Government bonds are effectively loans, made by investors to countries.
The higher the yield of a bond at auction, the riskier investors think that loan is, so the government has to offer them a higher rate of return to ensure it attracts enough buyers.
While some market concerns about Spain's public finances persist, the main eurozone debt fears are focused on Portugal.
The Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates has insisted that the country does not need to follow the Irish Republic and Greece and take a European Union-led bail-out.
However, BBC business editor Robert Peston said Portuguese officials had told him it was now "not a question of if there will be a bail-out, but when".
In Portugal's successful auction of one-year bonds on Wednesday, it had to offer a yield of 5.3%, up from 4.8% for the previous release.
Elsewhere on Thursday, official figures confirmed that the eurozone economy expanded 0.4% between July and September, the same level as the first estimate.
This was a slowdown on the 1% expansion seen across the 16 nations that share the eurozone in April to June.
