European shares were expected to open mixed on Tuesday with stronger-than-expected Chinese manufacturing data seen boosting Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE after Monday's holiday closure. The heavily commodity weighted FTSE 100 is believed to benefit most from the positive Chinese purchasing managers' index.

"Continuing on the Manufacturing PMI theme, markets may continue to gain ahead of today's US ISM Manufacturing PMI which is also expected to show a rise," Jonathan Sudaria, Night Dealer at London Capital Group.

Investors are likely to take profits after strong gains in France and Germany on Monday but worries about high sovereign debt levels in Italy are expected to remain a focus and policymakers have yet to come up with a solution to the euro zone debt crisis.

"The European debt crisis still hovers over the markets shoulder," Sudaria said.

Britain's FTSE 100 is expected to open up 90 to 99 points, or as much as 1.8 percent, Germany's DAX .GDAXI to open down 19 points, or as much as 0.3 percent, and France's CAC-40 .FCHI to start down 12 to 14 points or as much as 0.4 percent.