Good morning. Though the market was not hit by any unexpected bad news yesterday, it was a day of mixed developments. Good news came from the EU region as Italy managed to raise \u20ac6.19 billion by selling bonds at a yield of 5.32%, down from 5.60% at a similar auction previously, despite suffering sovereign downgrade recently. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faces a confidence vote in the parliament today, his eighth such vote in 2011 and ninth in the past twelve month, which took a heavy toll on the Italian stock market yesterday.<\/p>\n
The day\u2019s other positive development was the Slovakian parliament passing the EFSF expansion bill. The head of EFSF said the later that the facility can now become fully functional. He was confident that the EU leaders have the substance to respond to what the market needs. Nobody will benefit more than Athens with Slovakia\u2019s assent to EFSF expansion. <\/p>\n
The day\u2019s negative development was Standard & Poor\u2019s downgrading Spain\u2019s credit rating by one notch. Not entirely surprising since Fitch had already downgraded the country last week. S&P cited similar reasons of slow growth and high debt levels. <\/p>\n
Following Moody\u2019s footsteps, Fitch downgraded 15 banks in the eurozone, including RBS and Lloyds of UK. Barclays was spared the axe, but put on negative watch. Difficult time ahead for the banks and may need government support for further recapitalization.<\/p>\n
GBP\/EURO \u2013 1.1432
\nGBP\/US$ \u2013 1.5756
\nGBP\/CHF \u2013 1.4148
\nGBP\/CAN$ – 1.6071
\nGBP\/AUS$ \u2013 1.5557
\nGBP\/ZAR \u2013 12.3421
\nGBP\/JPY \u2013 121.44
\nGBP\/HKD \u2013 12.2720
\nGBP\/NZD \u2013 1.9812
\nGBP\/SEK \u2013 10.4710<\/p>\n