FTSE 100 opened up 20 pts at 5442 8 after losing its gains from yesterday morning

• FTSE 100 opened up 20 pts at 5442.8 after losing its gains from yesterday morning as the boost to equity markets from the Spanish €100bn bailout proved only to be temporary.
• Germany’s DAX is pretty much flat at 6141 as is France’s CAC 3052.
• Over in the US the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down over 1% or 142 pts at 12411 with early risers such as Bank of America and JP Morgan ending up among the biggest losers.
• The Nikkei was also down 1% on the back of risk aversion strengthening the Yen which in turn negatively affects Japan’s equities. This is all highly reflective of how the Spanish banking bailout has done very little to alleviate investors underlying concerns about the state of eurozone economics, especially now that larger eurozone members are being hit the hardest.
• Resultantly Spain’s 10 year borrowing cost has risen nearly 30 basis points to 6.5%. Short-term solutions are being seen for what they are and it’s going to take some policies with real meat to show that politicians have moved on from infighting to create a solid long-term plan.
• Unsurprisingly the UK companies taking some of the biggest hits were the banks with RBS Lloyds and Barclays falling 2, 0.7 and 1.8% respectively and the British arm of Santander bank lost 1.2% after having its rating cut from A+ to A.
• The biggest loser, however, was tech company ARM holdings losing 3% and top of the league today is insurance company Admiral group up 2%.
• UK manufacturing production data is the only big figure coming out today but other than that expect the limelight to shift back to Greece as their election this Sunday looms.

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