-Stock markets rise ahead of European Central Bank refinancing
-Expectations ECB will pump €470bn into European banking system
-US durable goods orders down

FTSE-100: 0.17%
Dax-30: 0.55%
Cac-40: 0.44%
Euro Stoxx 50: 0.37%
Ibex 35: -0.05%
Mibtel: 0.46%

Most major European stock markets ended the day in positive territory as investors waited for the European Central Bank's so called "long-term refinancing operation" to begin tomorrow.

The process, which is a repeat of a similar operation in December, will see the ECB lend out huge amounts of money to any European banks that can post appropriate collateral. The loans will attract an interest of 1% and must be repaid in three year's time.

In reality, this "cheap" money is a huge opportunity for banks to rebuild their shattered balance sheets by lending out the ECB money at much higher rates than the 1% they must pay.

A Bloomberg poll has indicated economists think there will be demand for perhaps €470bn.

In other news, the US commerce department said orders of durable goods dropped 4% in January, this was against market expectations of a fall of just 1%.

In Berlin, German politicians voted last night to allow the Greek bailout package through Parliament, in a move that reassured investors over the status of the aid programme.

EQUITIES

French car maker Peugeot gained 0.4% on reports that General Motors may take a stake.

Spanish Telecoms group Telefonica made initial gains after its Chief Executive said the company would keeps its stake in China Unicom Hong Kong "forever." By the close the stock had dropped 0.27%.

The strongest sector today on the Stoxx Europe 600 was Technology, up 0.92%. The weakest sector was Telecommunications, down 0.22%.

MACROECONOMY

Based on the latest regional German CPIs out this morning, analysts at Barclays Capital expect the national data to show a 0.7% month-on-month rise for February (Consensus: 0.5%).

The Eurozone economic sentiment index for the month of February has shown a rise of 1 point to 94.4 (Consensus: 94.0).

GfK's German consumer confidence index for the month of March rose to 6 points from 5.9 this month.

OTHER MARKETS

Front month Brent futures had fallen by 0.99% to $122.94 per barrel by 16:44 in London.

The euro/dollar had gained 0.4633% by 17:57 in Berlin.

BS

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