Eurozone

EUROPE

The FTSE 100 was off over 1% mid-afternoon as investors spooked by the latest developments in Spain took risk off the table.

Investec portfolio manager Max King explains why, with corporate earnings beginning to catch up to the market, the perfect time to buy equities is now, before monetary policy begins to tighten once more.

LEHMANS WINNERS

J.P. Morgan Asset Management's Nick Gartside bought Spanish 10 year debt as the ECB's bond buying plan, announced last week, means he now knows "the rules of the game".

UK asset managers are readying their contingency plans to cope with a possible ‘Grexit' as the beleaguered economy returns to the spotlight, despite ECB president Mario Draghi providing a boost for European markets last week.

BIG INTERVIEW

The FTSE 100 has risen 2.1% and yields on benchmark Italian government debt have touched five-month lows as markets react positively to the ECB's bond-buying plans.

ECB president Mario Draghi has outlined details of a plan to buy unlimited amounts of eurozone nations' short-dated debt in an effort to stem the eurozone crisis.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has made a sharp cut to its forecast for UK growth in its latest interim economic assessment.