European shares charge ahead after Wall Street rally

Within a few minutes of opening, Europe's blue-chip Stoxx 50 had climbed 3.1 per cent to 2,393 points.

The jump in European stocks came in the wake of New York's Dow Jones Industrial Average chalking up its biggest one-day points gain in history Monday, rising 936.42 points, or 11.08 per cent, to close at 9,387.61.

This also helped to power solid gains for bourses across the Asian-Pacific region with shares in Tokyo closing up 13 per cent and by more than 4.0 per cent in Hong Kong.

Stocks in Sydney gained 3.7 per cent, underpinned by an Australian government economic stimulus package.