LONDON: European shares were set to rise on Friday, tracking gains on Wall Street and in Asia, with the European Central Bank's likely move to lend a huge amount to banks next week and recent positive data prompting investors to buy stocks.
"Greek issues seem to have taken a backseat, and really the talk on the trading floors is the upcoming ECB three-year LTRO (long term refinancing operation)," Stan Shamu, strategist at IG Markets, said.
"The impact on stocks and sovereign yields should be relatively straightforward a heavy take-up by European banks would be considered good.
This will provide further confidence that they are better capitalised and are ringfenced, should Greece not live up to the demands being asked by Northern Europe."
The ECB will lend nearly half a trillion euros to banks at rock-bottom rates next week through its latest three-year refinancing operation, Reuters polls showed on Monday.
Financial spread-betters predicted Britain's FTSE 100 to open 11 to 17 points higher, or as much as 0.3 percent, Germany's DAX to rise 25 to 31 points, or as much as 0.5 percent, and France's CAC-40 to gain 18 to 25 points, or as much as 0.7 percent.
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