Records continued to fall throughout Europe, with Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Milan, Madrid and Helsinki all hitting best-ever levels.
Ahead of today's meeting of the Federal Reserve monetary policy committee, there was little inspiration in either bond or currency markets. But Wall Street opened steadily enough, helped by another record run for the Nasdaq composite index.
The FTSE Eurobloc 100 index rose 1 per cent to a peak 1,308.35 and the FTSE Eurotop 100 index gained 0.5 at 3,484.67. The FTSE Eurotop 300 index ended at 1,509.76, up 0.5 per cent.
Frankfurt delivered its fifth record high in succession, adding 24.76 at 6,378.66 on the Xetra Dax index.
Market heavyweight Deutsche Telekom made a fresh assault on its €61.20 record high, closing €3.28, or 5.7 per cent, firmer at €60.79.
Adidas-Salomon continued to gain, adding a further €3.74 to €78.75, for a two-day advance of 12.7 per cent following strong results from US sportswear rival Nike.
Paris pushed higher, with news of the latest mega-deal in the drugs sector lifting Sanofi-Synthelabo €1.50 to €39. Technology-related stocks stayed in demand, with pay-TV group Canal Plus recovering most of Friday's losses with a gain of €4.10 to €112.2.
ST Microelectronics, which has pulled off a development deal with Hewlett-Packard of the US, rose €4.80 to €144.40. An upbeat trading statement sent mobile phone maker Sagem €23.90 ahead at €504.
The CAC-40 index ended 18.71 higher at 5,521.11.
Amsterdam was lifted by a powerful run at KPN, which powered to the top of the day's performance charts after plans for a government review of its 44 per cent blocking shareholding sparked all sorts of wider share-ownership stories. Shares in the telecoms group jumped to €86 before settling at €85.10, up €4.95, or 6.2 per cent, on the session.
The AEX index finished 8.80 ahead at a record 643.52.
Helsinki rocketed 5.5 per cent to another all-time high as telecoms-related Nokia and Sonera continued to shoot ahead. The Hex general index was 710.96 higher at 13,679.17.
Nokia jumped 5.1 per cent to €172 after Wall Street opened higher, just off its life high of €172.10, reached on December 7th.
Telecoms operator Sonera soared 17.9 per cent to €59.50, its largest one-day gain ever, on hopes that it will soon list its newly incorporated Zed mobile portal and SmartTrust electronic commerce businesses.
Zurich was higher as a recovery in heavyweights UBS and Roche sent the SMI index 38.4 ahead to 7,389.7.
Milan pressed further into record territory and Moscow roared 10 per cent higher after a strong showing by pro-Kremlin parties in the weekend's parliamentary elections.
