Spanish Stocks Miss Rally on Rajoy Budget Gap Skepticism
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Spanish stocks are the only developed market suffering losses this year as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy fails to rein in the budget deficit fast enough to assure investors.
The IBEX 35 Index dropped 2.1 percent in 2012 through yesterday, the only decline among 24 developed markets tracked by Bloomberg. That compares with an 11 percent rally in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, the best start to a year since 1998. The Spanish gauge has erased all gains that followed the European Central Bank’s Dec. 8 announcement of unlimited three-year loans for banks at below-market borrowing costs.