European stock markets rose Tuesday after the 16 countries that share the euro agreed to help Greece with loans, if needed, and a German investor sentiment survey fell less than expected.
The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 37.60 points, or 0.7 per cent, at 5,631.45 while Germany's DAX rose 49.87 points, or 0.8 per cent, at 5,953.43. The CAC-40 in France was 36.53 points, or 0.9 per cent, higher at 5,927.44.
The euro rose 0.1 per cent over the day to $1.3693.
Sentiment in Europe has been buoyed by the news late Monday that the euro zone finance ministers pledged to provide Greece with loans, if needed.
Though the exact details of how a package would work remain vague, the hope within the euro zone is that the mere announcement of a stronger support package will ease market concerns about Greece's debt problems, and help to bring the cost of borrowing down for Greece.
The main question centres on whether the Greek government can push through its plan to reduce the budget deficit by four percentage points this year alone to 8.7 per cent of the country's national income, given likely social unrest as wages and state benefits effectively decline.
For now though, there's some relief that the euro zone has finally agreed to something beside verbal support for Greece's package.
Further buoying sentiment, in Europe at least, was a better than expected survey from the ZEW Institute in Germany. Though its headline economic expectations index fell for the sixth month running in March to 44.5, the decline was not as big anticipated - the consensus in the markets was that the index would drop to 43 from February's 45.1.
The main event later will be the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting. Wall Street is not expected to move too much before the policy statement due at 1815 GMT (1415 EST) - Dow futures were up 16 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 10,592 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose 2.1 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 1,147.80 Though no one thinks there will be any change in the benchmark Fed funds rate from the current historic low of 0 - 0.25 per cent, investors will be on the lookout for any changes in the statement accompanying the rate decision.
Japan's central bank is also in focus - while it is expected to maintain its benchmark interest rate at 0.1 per cent Wednesday, there's growing speculation it will ease policy in other ways, possibly by expanding loan programs and other steps to keep money cheap and available as the world's second-largest economy heals.
Earlier, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock average fell 30.27 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 10,721.71, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 56.17 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 21,022.93. South Korea's Kospi was off 1.49, or 0.1 per cent, to 1,648.01.
Elsewhere, Shanghai's market rose 0.5 per cent and Australia's was up 0.3 per cent.
Oil prices remained below $80 a barrel, with benchmark crude for April delivery down 7 cents at $79.87 a barrel.