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Markets 23rd May 2012

Most of the Ibex 35 vulnerable to takeovers were not for the euro crisis

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…

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Markets 22nd May 2012

Goldman Sachs forecasts 50pc price increase for Santander, BBVA

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…

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Markets 22nd May 2012

Deutsche Bank issues its first €15 billion in bonds, mortgage notes in Spain

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…

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Markets 22nd May 2012

The soft core of core Europe

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…

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Markets 21st May 2012

IMF reports 70pc of Spain’s banking system already cleaned up

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…

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Markets 21st May 2012

Monday’s chart: that bank deposit flight

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…

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Markets 18th May 2012

UK banks could face £100-billion bill in commercial property debt

LONDON | Debt held against UK commercial property fell last year from £228.1 billion to £212.3 billion, a drop of 6.8%, the largest British property lending survey revealed Friday. Yet the UK Commercial Property Lending Market report by De Montfort University found that while the overall level of debt is on a downward trajectory and progress has been made in dealing with the distressed legacy debt, there is a long way…

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Markets 18th May 2012

Grexit: The Greek exit would cost France and Germany dear

LONDON | If you haven’t heard of it, you have simply not been on planet Earth: Grexit was the trendiest word this week, but for the wrong reasons. Would Greece exit the euro zone, shuttering prospects of an approaching global economic recovery? The matter was not whether the Hellenic nation could stand the heat coming from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which assured the…

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Markets 18th May 2012

The City wants Germany to give peripheral economies more time

LONDON | The financial City of London would pose as an unlikely critic of Germany’s tactics throughout the long euro rope pulling between the peripheral rotten economies and the apparently unstoppable Teutonic motor. Report after report has come out from City analysts supporting how urgent austerity packages were and pointing at every bad decision made by Greek, Irish, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish politicians, who should have known better. Truth be told,…

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Markets 17th May 2012

Thursday’s charts: dumb bets

Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | Greece was in free fall mode when at the European Central Bank they had the funny idea of pushing the country …downwards. The ECB said it had frozen all operations with Greek banks, which already are suffering a killing capital drain: “Central bank head George Provopoulos told Papoulias that Greeks have withdrawn as much as €700 million ($891 million) and the situation could worsen, according to the transcript…