World stockmarkets hovered close to all-time highs yesterday as the best start to a year in eight years showed little sign of running out of steam, with the combination of strong global growth and low inflation powering the appetite for risk.

Spanish government bonds jumped, pushing the yield down by the most in two years after acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy defied opinion polls to consolidate his position in the country’s general election after Brexit rocked the world’s financial markets last week.

Deutsche Bank plans to buy back about $5.4bn of bonds in euros and dollars as it seeks to allay investor concerns about its finances.

Mario Draghi has proposed spending as much as €1.1trn as the European Central Bank seeks to revive inflation in the eurozone.

Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony has confirmed an annual loss of £1.96bn (€2.2bn).