Mar 29, 2022 02:00AM ET
By: AnalysisWatch
European stock markets are expected to open slightly higher on Tuesday ahead of the start of another round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Turkey this week.
At 2 am, DAX futures in Germany were trading 0.4% higher, CAC 40 futures in France climbed 1.2%, and FTSE 100 futures in the UK were up 0.6%.
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators will meet in Turkey on Tuesday for face-to-face talks, the first direct talks between the two sides in more than two weeks.
Despite gains in stock markets, however, there appears to be little hope of a breakthrough as Kyiv seeks a ceasefire without compromising on territory or sovereignty, while Russia continues to make territorial claims, including Crimea, which Moscow seized and annexed in 2014, and some eastern territories.
Ahead of the talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday urged Western countries to quickly tighten sanctions against Russia, including an oil embargo that some European countries have been reluctant to impose given their dependence on Russian energy supplies.
Officials from the US and German governments will meet with energy industry executives later this week to discuss how to promote alternative sources of supply for Germany, the eurozone's largest economy, which relies on Russian oil and gas.
The GfK consumer confidence index for Germany fell to 15.5 in April from a revised 8.5 the previous month as the war in Ukraine and rising commodity prices weighed on sentiment.
Later in the session, the Bank of England will publish its latest quarterly report, which will be carefully scrutinized as the UK central bank continues to raise interest rates.