Technical glitch closes Spanish stock market for five hours

Spanish stocks rallied sharply this afternoon after a technical glitch shut down the country's blue chip index for almost five hours.

The Spanish IBEX 35 - containing its 35 largest companies - halted trading shortly after 8am this morning, not resuming until 12:50pm, Reuters reports. After reopening, Spain's premier index was 3.5% higher at 6,995 points. The nature of the fault has not yet been specified, but it comes at a time when Spanish equity markets are very much in the spotlight and investors are nervous about the country's sprawling deficit and weak economy. However, positive US data on Friday has lifted markets and, coupled with low trading volumes, continues to provide a boost today. Other indices a...