Markets slump as Italy's key rate hits 7%

Rising borrowing rates for many of the eurozone’s more indebted countries sent investors scurrying out of stock markets today, on a day that Italy’s prime minister-designate was looking to get the support of the country’s political parties for a technocratic government.

Despite a growing sense of relief that respected economist Mario Monti has been appointed to replace Silvio Berlusconi, markets are viewing developments in Rome with a fair degree of scepticism and the country’s key borrowing rate is rising again.