Summary The European single currency eased to 81.23 British pence from 81.25 pence.
LONDON (AFP) - European stock markets largely steadied on Thursday as investors sat tight on mounting expectations that the ECB is set to announce cuts to eurozone interest rates.
Frankfurt s DAX 30 index fell 0.13 percent to 9,913.88 points and the CAC 40 in Paris edged up 0.08 percent to 4,504.80.
London s FTSE 100 dipped 0.23 percent to stand at 6,818.15 points compared with Wednesday s closing level.
Madrid s IBEX 35 index won 0.09 percent to 10,765.40 points.
"European shares are trading little changed this morning, as most traders wait on the sidelines for the eagerly anticipated ECB decision," said Markus Huber, senior analyst at broker Peregrine & Black.
"Understandably in light of the importance of today s ECB meeting and the possible implications on the eurozone economy, strong German manufacturing orders reported earlier this morning and a somewhat disappointing Chinese services PMI overnight are being paid very little attention."
The European Central Bank is forecast to cut its key interest rates on Thursday and unveil other unconventional measures in a battle against deflation, analysts said.
After effectively pre-announcing a move last month and carefully priming the financial markets for action since then, the ECB s governing council is finally expected to deliver at its regular monthly policy meeting in Frankfurt.
The ECB has held its key interest rates steady at their current all-time lows -- of 0.75 percent, 0.25 percent and zero percent respectively -- since November.
Also on Thursday, the Bank of England is expected to keep its main interest rate at a record-low 0.50 percent.
In foreign exchange deals on Thursday, the euro gained to $1.3613 from $1.3599 late in New York on Wednesday.
The European single currency eased to 81.23 British pence from 81.25 pence.
The British pound climbed to $1.6758 from $1.6737 on Wednesday.
The price of gold fell to $1,242.94 an ounce from $1,245.25 Wednesday on the London Bullion Market.
In Frankfurt, "the time for policy action from the ECB has finally arrived after it talked a good game over the last couple of months", said Lee Hardman, currency analyst at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
"As a result, investor expectations for further ECB monetary policy easing to be announced at today s meeting are unusually high. At the very least investors are expecting the ECB to lower by around 10/15 basis points both their refinancing and deposit rates moving the latter into negative territory."
Meanwhile the German economy, Europe s biggest and largest in the eurozone, is looking brighter for the second quarter following a surprise jump in industrial orders, data showed on Thursday.
Industrial or factory orders -- a key measure of demand for German-made goods -- were up 3.1 percent in April compared with the level in March, the statistics office Destatis said in a statement.
