Europe's main stock markets rose, with Frankfurt's DAX closing above the symbolic 10,000 level for the first time.

"With a lack of economic data, European shares were soft today after the solid gains made last week in expectation of and as a result of ECB stimulus and the goldilocks U.S. jobs report," said analyst Jasper Lawler at CMC Markets UK.

"With Germany and France out for Whit Monday, volumes were particularly thin in what is already a period of unusually low volatility," he added.

Nevertheless the DAX 30 managed to pick up 0.21 percent to finish the day at 10,008.63 points.

London's FTSE 100 index of top companies tacked on 0.24 percent to 6,875 points, while the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.17 percent to reach its highest point since June 2008 at 4,589.12 points.

Milan rose 0.82 percent and Madrid 0.90 percent.

"The context is favorable thanks to the monetary policies of central banks even if it is possible to have short-term consolidations," said Saxo Banque analyst Christopher Dembik.

"For the moment, the rise is self-supporting" with technical trade dominating, he added.

In a move hailed as "unprecedented" by analysts, the European Central Bank last week lowered rates across the board and pushed the rate at which it pays commercial banks for depositing their unused cash into negative territory, cutting it from zero percent to minus 0.10 percent.

This means banks will be charged for depositing their excess cash with the ECB in a bid to encourage lending, and the central bank said it would also make up to 400 billion euros in cheap long-term funds available to eurozone lenders.