Spanish debt sale helps lift markets

A TURNAROUND in Spain’s debt-selling fortunes went some way to easing investor nerves yesterday, with all major European stock markets showing moderate growth, following Wednesday’s sharp falls.

Not only did Spain manage to sell ten-year bonds with a considerably lower yield than its previous auction in October, but it managed to raise €6 billion, rather than its initial estimates of between €2.5bn and €3.5bn.

This was enough to spark a recovery in European stocks; although there was a warning from ECB chief Mario Draghi, stating that there would be “no external saviour” for debt-ridden economies not prepared to help themselves.

In London, the FTSE was up by 0.63%, with the CAC-40 in Paris up similarly by 0.76%. Frankfurt’s DAX index and Spain’s IBEX showed higher gains of 0.98% and 0.84%, respectively; while Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 1.37%.

In Dublin, the ISEQ returned to growth; up by just over 1% (having been up slightly higher earlier in the day) to just over 2,700 points — boosted by good performances from high-profile stocks like Aryzta, CRH, Elan, Smurfit Kappa, Irish Continental Group, Paddy Power and Ryanair.

The likes of Icon, United Drug and FBD were among the notable fallers.

Any wider growth levels, in European markets, were checked by BlackRock — the world’s biggest asset management company — forecasting that Europe is headed for a wide-reaching recession, which will include its two biggest economies of Germany and France — as continent-wide employers will cut spending and stop hiring as the eurozone debt crisis rumbles on.