European stocks closed on a firm note on Thursday, with several climbing to multi-month highs, as optimism over monetary easing by the Federal Reserve in the coming months, hopes around artificial intelligence, helped outweigh concerns about a partial U.S. government shutdown.The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.78%. Germany's DAX gained 1.28% and France's CAC 40 ended 1.14% up, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged up 0.07%. Switzerland's SMI settled with a gain of 0.54%.Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, ...