Leading UK shares are continuing their decline after an opening fall on Wall Street amid continuing fears about the US fiscal cliff and the eurozone debt crisis.
Markets were buoyed late on Tuesday by talk that Spain, finally, would bite the bullet and request a bailout. But EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn has seemingly punctured that balloon.
He has said Spain has taken effective debt reduction measures for 2012 and 2013, and was on the right track. Nor was it likely to request a bailout in the near term.
But 2014 was a different matter, he added, with its measures for that year falling short of what was required by ministers.
The market has reacted badly to that point. With Wall Street down 60 points, the FTSE 100 was already under pressure, but Rehn's comments have helped push it 58.09 points lower to 5728.16. Bond yields in Spain have edged higher, moving closer to 6%.
