Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent the day before, boosted by Smiths Group after the sale of its aerospace division and by Cairn Energy on a report that India is to approve plans for a key pipeline.

Smiths Group surged 14.7 percent after it agreed to sell its aerospace division to US conglomerate General Electric for $4.8 billion in cash and said it would return most of the proceeds to shareholders.

Smiths, which will focus on its detection, medical and speciality engineering businesses, said it planned to return 2.1 billion pounds ($4.1 billion) to investors.

India-focused miner Vedanta climbed 3.2 percent after saying its third-quarter underlying profit rose 174 percent thanks to strong commodity prices and a sharp rise in output of aluminium, zinc and copper.

Cairn Energy tacked on 3.1 percent following a media report that the Indian government would approve plans for the company to include investment on the pipeline in the overall cost of the Rajasthan field. Officials from Cairn were not immediately available for comment.

Traders said the market was boosted by a record high on Wall Street on Friday, which also carried over into the Asian markets.

But with little on the corporate and economic calendar and with the US markets closed the day before for Martin Luther King holiday, investors may struggle for direction as the session progresses.

US crude prices rose above $ 53 as expectations of another cut in Opec production stoked a rebound from last week's 19-month low. BP added 0.6 percent, and rival Royal Dutch Shell was up 0.7 percent.

Among individual stocks, insurer Aviva climbed 1.7 percent after a Credit Suisse upgrade.

British defence firm BAE Systems was up 1.7 percent after news that it could join with U.S. private equity group Carlyle in bidding for Britain's nuclear submarine dockyard Devonport, a source close to the situation said yesterday.