London's FTSE 100 index of top shares added 0.71 percent to 5,904.37 points in late morning trade.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 gained 0.97 percent to 7,144.98 points and in Paris the CAC 40 increased by 0.84 percent to 4,039.09.
The Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone companies rose 0.85 percent to 2,978.74 points nearing the half-way stage.
"Investors continued to buy into heavyweight mining firms on Tuesday to help lift European indices from their lows after copper prices hit another record high," said City Index market strategist Joshua Raymond.
On the London Metal Exchange, the contract for three-month tin jumped to $30,400 a tonne, and copper rocketed to an all-time pinnacle of $9,878.50 dollars a tonne.
"Besides the high market optimism, copper and tin are finding support especially from the tight supply/demand ratio," noted Commerzbank analysts.
Global stock markets had been hit Monday by worsening political instability in Egypt.
"The crisis in Egypt has delivered a blow to the general level of investor risk appetite across all asset classes," noted Altium Securities analyst Ian Williams.
"It is tricky for UK investors to process the specific implications at a sector and stock level, other than to treat the oil and gas sector as the obvious safe haven" investment.
Egyptians on Tuesday massed for the biggest day of anger yet in their unrelenting campaign to oust President Hosni Mubarak, set to be a decisive test of their resolve in an eight-day revolt that has already killed over 100.
Thousands of protesters flooded Cairo's protest epicentre at Tahrir square from early morning with "march of a million" against Mubarak's creaking regime to be staged in the Egyptian capital and Alexandria.
World oil prices had meanwhile soared on Monday beyond $100 for the first time in more than two years, as traders worried that escalating turmoil in Egypt will disrupt supply flows through the strategic Suez Canal.
Soaring oil prices boost revenues and earnings at oil companies -- and therefore tend to lift their share prices.
However BP stock was down 1.22 percent at 478.95 pence in Tuesday trade after the embattled energy group posted its first annual loss for almost two decades.
The British company said it made a loss of $4.9 billion (3.6 billion euros) last year, which was the first shortfall since 1992. That compared with a profit of $13.955 billion in 2009.
BP blamed the extremely poor result on last year's devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and raised the estimate of costs from the disaster to $40.9 billion.
However, the company said it will resume payment of its shareholder dividend at seven cents per share. The payout was suspended in the face of intense US political pressure last year.