Stock markets begin a little higher on Tuesday as some stability returns to the region's banking sector.

In anticipation of business confidence statistics from France and Italy, European stock markets begin a little higher on Tuesday as some stability returns to the region's banking sector.

With the recent instability in the global banking industry, which led to the failure of a few local U.S. banks and the state-sponsored bailout of competitor Credit Suisse by UBS, confidence is beginning to return to European stock markets.

The European Central Bank has made a great effort to emphasise that the area is far more prepared than it was for the 2008 collapse as European banking shares increased on Monday, reversing the severe falls of the previous week.

In an effort to show support for the banks in the area as the authorities maintain their continuous fight against rising prices, the ECB increased interest rates by 50 basis points earlier this month.

The ECB must continue to be alert as annual CPI growth are expected to have sharply slowed in February even if underlying inflation is likely to have increased. This information will be released on Friday.

Prior to this, March business confidence figures for France and Italy are scheduled for publication. These figures follow those from the Ifo institute, which were issued on Monday and indicated that despite the recent banking crisis, German company morale surprisingly increased in March.

Tuesday saw a little decline in oil prices as the recent surge came to an end ahead of the publication of the most current data on U.S. crude stocks, which may reveal information about the supply-demand situation in the world's largest consumer.

Later in the day, the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association, will release its inventory data, which after growing by slightly over 3 million barrels the previous week, is predicted to indicate yet another gain.

Key developments today:

• BoE Gov Bailey speaks at 09:45 GMT.
• ECB President Lagarde Speaks at 14:15 GMT.
• US CB Consumer Confidence at 15:00 GMT.

(Investing.com, Reuters.com)