Europe's main stock markets climbed Tuesday following a largely tepid performance by Asia's top indices as a record-long US government shutdown took a step nearer to ending.

London's top-tier FTSE 100 index led the way, reaching a fresh record high as a weakening pound boosted multi-nationals earning in dollars.

An Asian rally that began Monday on shutdown hopes ran out of steam while US equity futures showed a similar picture ahead of Wall Street reopening.

"Following on from yesterday's US shutdown-fuelled optimism the gains seen in Europe... look to be a separate phenomenon given the weakness seen in US futures thus far," noted Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.

Paris won solid gains during a public holiday in France, which tends to exaggerate share price movement

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