MADRID | Utter disarray might sound a mild and tender description for the knock out effect BANKIA crash landing has inflicted on Spain’s credibility. Only a few days ago, the government downsized the issue to a trifle €7 billion support. The bill runs now at €24 billion, with the prospect to rise still higher. Spending such a huge pile of money doesn’t stand as the most worrying fact. After all,…
MADRID | A few weeks ago, the Spanish government adamantly denied any hint on disbursing a single penny in banking sector support. A few days ago, it acknowledged the necessity to do just the opposite for anchoring ailing entities. In a desperate face saving attempt it discarded such a funding might lead to open aid, support being provided at a punitive 10% interest rate. But BANKIA discomfiture has led to a…
LONDON | Barclays Capital asked 80 of their fixed income clients about what the European Central Bank should do to calm markets down and deflate the ever more acute euro crisis. Investors from outside the euro zone said the central bank’s best chance would be to return to the markets to buy sovereign debt from Italy and Spain, cut interest rates and inject long-term liquidity into the banking system, but…
LONDON | Contagion is an easy-to-spot force. The German stock market DAX 30 Index has since late March declined by 9.2% in euro terms, in an environment where the broader continental market, as represented by the MSCI Europe Index, has fallen by 10.6%. For mere market observers, this drop has followed a period of very strong performance earlier in the year, particularly two months ago, so perhaps a degree of profit-taking…
By Carlos Díaz Guell, in Madrid | May 15, in Madrid, was bank holiday in commemoration of its saint patron San Isidro. But the stock market was opened. The IBEX 35 closed that session at 6,700 points, ranking at September 2003 levels. Drawing on the daily exchange rate of that day, the drop so far this year (fall, thud, even crash if the readers would rather use a harsh word) has been of 22.27 percent and over 53 percent from November 2007. The…
MADRID | Finance daily newspaper Expansion reported Tuesday that investment bank Goldman Sachs expects Santander and BBVA stock price to go up by 50 percent, according to an analysts’ note. The confidence of Goldman Sachs experts goes far beyond the two big Spanish banks, too. All medium-sized banks in Spain had their ratings updated with higher value, apart from Bankinter, whose share price was reduced to €2.70 or 10% lower than at Monday’s close. The punishment Spain’s banking…
MADRID |Deutsche Bank changed its financing strategy by registering a fixed income prospectus in Spain for the first time in history, as reported by the Spanish journal Expansión. The German entity will issue mainly bonds and mortgage notes for an amount of €15 billion, according to the initial information document, which has been sent to the Spanish Securities Exchange Commision or CNMV. Sources at the bank said that “this decision proves…
Just because most European languages attach a semantic Spartan-like element to the term austerity, it doesn’t follow that austerity must obviously be a more consistent policy than, let’s say, a profligacy programme. Common ancient history aside, the increasing doubts about the German and French economies doing well in spite of the stress the euro zone is going under, tells us that austerity plans currently in place in euro peripheral States were not thoroughly…
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | The idea of a suffocated Spanish banking sector spreads like fire throughout the markets: Bankia’s nationalisation, Moody’s cut, the French president François Hollande advising to recapitalise the sector… But the International Monetary Fund will publish next week a report that assures 70% of Spain’s financial entities are already restructured. This news should help tame and perhaps even extinguish the flames. Analysts at Madrid’s financial City also…
From Afi analysts in Madrid, an investor note came Monday with the picture of that much talked about capital flight from the euro peripheral banking systems in the form of non-financial private sector bank deposits. The variation this year, although somewhat noticeable, has not accelerated and volumes remain above 2010 levels in Portugal, Spain and Italy. Greece, on the other hand, shows a seemingly non-stoppable drop since 2009. All in…