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London - Europe's stock markets edged higher in opening trade on Thursday with investors on tenterhooks ahead of the European Central Bank's (ECB's) widely-expected stimulus announcement.
In initial deals, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies won 0.20% to 6 741.57 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 rose by just 0.01% to 10 300.26 points and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.04% to 4 486.76, compared with Wednesday's closing level.
Eyes are firmly on the ECB monetary policy meeting, with expectations high that it will unveil a programme of asset-purchasing or quantitative easing (QE).
Media speculation is building that the ECB will unveil proposals to buy €50bn of sovereign bonds per month until the end of 2016.
According to analysts at UniCredit, the market is expecting the ECB to unveil a programme worth a total of between €500 and €800bn.
Speculation has been rife for several months that more stimulus would be announced as inflation continues to weaken - and last month prices actually fell for the first time in five years.
