European markets keep momentum

European markets continued to improve on the back of the positive momentum created by last week EU leaders’ summit.

The NTMA also announced yesterday that Ireland would re-enter the short-term bond market this week for the first time since Sep 2010. The remainder of this week is also an important one from a macro point of view, with the ECB and the Bank of England meeting.

Speculation is mounting that the former will cut base interest rates while the latter is expected to announce further quantitative easing stimulus measures to the tune of €62bn. Positive sentiment pushed the ISEQ index 27.94c higher to 3,189.31.