Companies showed signs of shrugging off the caution that has enveloped the world economy since a credit crisis broke.
In Germany, the European country hit hardest by the turbulence, its largest bank, Deutsche, said it was optimistic about the current quarter and saw signs the market was stabilising.
Two Germans lenders, IKB and SachsenLB, almost sank when investments linked to the US home loan market turned sour, and several more have detailed billions of euros in exposure.
Sony said it would list shares of its financial unit on the Tokyo Stock Exchange next month, raising up to 361 billion yen (€2.30bn) in Japan's largest initial public offering this year.
There had been speculation Sony might delay the IPO because of market upheaval, as banks worldwide scrambled to calculate their exposure to mass defaults on subprime US mortgages.
Investors are now looking to US data to gauge the likelihood of a Federal Reserve rate cut.