"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 takeup 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." Read European stock to watch february 24 2012
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 spreadbetters 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.
Greece is expected to start its bond swap on Friday following the approval by parliament of a law to endorse the swap which will see private investors take a 53.5 percent hit on their holdings but in reality could be over 70 percent.
The swap is intended to wipe around 100 billion euros off liabilities. Italy will be tendering between 2 billion to 2.5 billion euros worth of short-dated bonds and up to half a billion in longer dated bonds, both at 10.00 GMT.
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