Whatever happens in Greece over the weekend, Monday is shaping up as one of the more interesting days for global stock markets in recent years.

Investors the world over are waiting anxiously for the results of Greek elections that could determine whether the debt-addled nation remains in the 17-member eurozone.

A win for the status quo New Democracy party would likely offer hope that a Greek bailout approved by European fiscal leaders earlier this year will move ahead as planned with as little disruption as possible. Investors are expected to seize on that scenario as a sign that there's light at the end of the long European debt crisis tunnel. That optimism could fuel a surge in global markets.

Investors have been bracing for a much more ominous outcome, however. Polls ahead of Sunday's ballot, made necessary by inconclusive national elections held in May, show rising support for the far-left leaning coalition party Syriza, whose leaders have renounced the austerity measures required under the terms of the Greek bailout.