The European Central Bank expanded its pandemic emergency purchase programme by €600 billion to a total of €1.35 trillion.

The latest move aims to help mitigate the negative impact of the coronavirus crisis and to create fiscal room for governments to support their economies. Still, investors were hoping that the central bank would announce an expansion of its bond-buying programme to include junk-rated bonds.

The rate on the ECB's Main Refinancing Operations, which banks can tap to obtain one-week credit from the central bank, was left at 0 percent while the rate on overnight liquidity was fixed at 0.25 percent.

The bank's Deposit Facility Rate was left at -0.5 percent.