World shares rose and the euro hovered near a three-week high on Friday, lifted by central bank preparations for coordinated liquidity operations in the event of a credit shock after Sunday's Greek election, Reuters reported. Expectations of more monetary stimulus were also boosted by a British plan to flood its recession-hit economy with cash, and after economic data in the United States rekindled talk of more Fed easing. But the Bank of Japan left its policy unchanged on Friday after a two-day meeting. "Despite some traders pricing in a global deluge of cheap money, today's gains on the open are seen as only modest," said Jonathan Sudaria, a dealer at London Capital Group. The MSCI world equity index was up 0.2 percent at 302.99 points - a rise of about 1.5 percent for the month so far after a fall of over nine percent in May. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.4 percent at 987.46 points in early trade led by gains in financial stocks. The euro was little changed at $1.2620, off a two-year low of $1.2280 hit on June 1, with the market still nervous about the impact of the Greek election on the future of the euro.
