Stocks in Europe advanced early Monday with the pharmaceutical sector witnessing buying.
At 1:45 p.m. (I.S.T.), Britain's FTSE, France's CAC and Germany's DAX rose 0.3% to 0.4%.
AstraZeneca was an early riser, climbing 1.2% after the firm lifted its earnings guidance. Peers GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis added 0.4% and 0.8%, respectively.
Financials opened flat but broadly rose later: Barclays, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale were trading between 0.6% and 1.3% higher. Miners were mixed with BHP Billiton gaining 0.7% while Xstrata lost 0.7%. Rio Tinto was flat.
Elsewhere, Asian markets were trading mixed with the Japanese Nikkei falling while India's Sensex edged up.