London - Eurozone indices were set for their first weekly gain this month as they rose early on Friday, with traders awaiting speeches from European Central Bank (ECB) policymakers for clues as to whether more stimulus may be under way.
French conglomerate Bouygues was the top riser among large European stocks, up 3.3%, after the chief executive of Altice said it was open to buy smaller rival Bouygues Telecom.
Bouygues was the top riser on the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which was up 0.1% at 1 357.71 points at 10:08. The Euro Stoxx 50 index was up 0.2%.
Traders were monitoring a banking congress in Frankfurt, where ECB president Mario Draghi and Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann were due to speak from 10:00.
Speculation about more stimulus from the ECB, pinned on comments by Draghi earlier this week, has boosted Germany's DAX, France's CAC and Euro STOXX 50 this week, setting up the three indexes for weekly gains of between 1% and 2.8% so far.
"Traders will be on the lookout for some dovish comments from Draghi when he speaks this morning," Jonathan Sudaria, a dealer at Capital Spreads, said in a trading note.