Elsewhere in Asia the extension of a support package for China’s property sector helped Hong Kong developers. The Hang Seng rose 1.5%.
The events calendar is relatively bare until U.S. CPI data on Wednesday and U.S. earnings later in the week, although final German inflation figures and British jobs data are due later on Tuesday.
Economists expect UK unemployment to hold at 3.8%, which is likely to add upward pressure on wages and interest rates.
That seems to be lending speculative support to the British currency, with sterling longs near their highest in five years and the spot price touching a 15-month top in the Asia session.