Wall Street and steadier commodity prices prodded world stocks higher on Tuesday but the euro remained weak against the dollar, shackled by uncertainty over Greece's debt crisis.
U.S. shares rose in the overnight session after the passing of landmark legislation to reform healthcare, with pharmaceutical stocks driving gains.
Gold rebounded after plumbing its lowest levels in nearly a month while U.S. light crude recovered after sinking to three-week lows in the previous session.
The MSCI main world equity index was up 0.2 percent by 1055 GMT, with the FTSEurofirst 300 index of pan-European blue-chips up 0.7 percent.
"We've had a decent start which is an indication that there is a bias towards equities with investors seeing more upside," said Peter Dixon, economist at Commerzbank.
Comments from senior Fed officials that the U.S. central bank remained committed to maintaining loose monetary conditions helped reassure investors startled by India's surprise move on Friday to hike its interest rates.
President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Dennis Lockhart said the Fed's pledge to keep rates ultra-low for an extended period was appropriate.
His counterpart in Chicago said he strongly supported keeping the current loose monetary stance as long as inflation remained under control.
Emerging economies such as India are facing rising inflationary pressures, caused in part by an influx of capital, but consumer price rises in developed Western economies are broadly slower.
British consumer prices rose at a slower rate than expected in February, sending sterling to its lowest in nearly two weeks.
Emerging stocks rose 0.4 percent while emerging sovereign spreads tightened two basis points to trade at 262 bps over U.S. Treasuries.
The dollar rebounded 0.3 percent against a basket of major currencies, keeping the euro near its weakest level against the greenback in three weeks.
Ahead of a European Union summit on Thursday and Friday, members of the grouping remain divided on what to do about help for debt-stricken Greece.
Greece said it wants a European solution to its debt crisis but Germany, the economic powerhouse of the euro bloc, has resisted calls for an aid package. The Bund future was up 7 ticks to 123.65.
