At 9:25 am (0725 GMT), Helsinki stocks were 1.27 percent higher, the Copenhagen stock exchange was up 0.91 percent and the bourses in Stockholm and Oslo were both up 0.30 percent.

The return to the black after last week's heavy falls came after the European Central Bank said it would support the market for bonds issued by distressed eurozone countries, helping offset uncertainty about the US and eurozone debt crises and negative sentiment after Standard & Poor's downgraded its rating for US debt from triple "A".

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011