Markets are having a fairly good day in Europe as all the major indices are trending upwards following the ECB and BoE meetings on Thursday. The British FTSE 100, France’s CAC, Germany’s DAX, Spain’s IBEX and Italy’s FTSE MIB were all up between 0.2 and 0.6 per cent.

While investors expected more gains to be possible for the first months of 2013, they also maintained caution in their predictions as there are risks that markets will turn unstable due to insecurity over how ECB will eventually treat Italy’s complications during its consultations on Thursday.

Italy’s elections which resulted in a gridlock are raising concerns over how southern European countries like Spain, Italy and Greece will manage with much-needed and severe austerity measures to rebuild their ailing and poorly performing economies, keeping in mind that spending cuts can easily spur mass anger in these countries.

The ECB is estimated to keep interest rates low, at 0.75 per cent but experts argue that ECB chair Mario Draghi will reiterate his policy statements regarding the loosening of the ECB’s procedures on bond-buying in order to keep Italy afloat.