LONDON — Europe's stock markets advanced for the third day running Tuesday on upbeat corporate results and a call by the head of the Boston Fed for the US Federal Reserve to launch an open-ended bond-buying programme.

London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies added 0.56 percent to close at 5,841.24 points even as charges against Standard Chartered bank weighed heavily on its shares.

Elsewhere, Frankfurt's DAX 30 gained 0.71 percent to 6,967.95 points and in Paris the CAC 40 climbed 1.52 percent to 3,453.28. Madrid rose 2.23 percent and Milan added 2.19 percent.

After showing a gain of 3.0 percent in afternoon trading, Lisbon closed 2.76 percent higher at 4,847.80 points.

In foreign exchange trade, the European single currency rose to $1.2422 from $1.2399 late in New York on Monday.

In London, the emerging markets bank Standard Chartered topped the fallers board however after US regulators accused the lender of hiding $250 billion (201 billion euros) in transactions with Iranian banks, plunging the banking sector into fresh crisis.

The London-based lender saw its share price collapse 16.76 percent to stand at 1,223.57 pence, having been down by one quarter at one point.

New York regulators have branded Standard Chartered a "rogue institution" and threatened it with fines and the suspension of its licence.

The Department of Financial Services (DFS) said the London-based giant systematically disguised foreign exchange deals with Iran that potentially opened the US banking system to terrorists and criminals.

Standard Chartered snapped back, saying that it "strongly rejects ... the portrayal of facts as set out" by the DFS.

European shares were supported however by solid results in the financial sector, with Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurer, saying it would raise its profit forecast for 2012 after a better-than-expected second quarter.