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GLOBAL MARKETS-Catalan vote batters Spanish stocks, euro dips

Published 22/12/2017, 08:43 pm
GLOBAL MARKETS-Catalan vote batters Spanish stocks, euro dips
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* Spain's IBEX falls 1.1 pct

* Euro slips

* Spanish bond yields hit over 1-mth high

* STOXX down 0.1 pct

* Bitcoin falls more than 14 percent

By Ritvik Carvalho

LONDON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Spanish stocks and the euro fell, while Spanish government bond yields hit their highest levels in over a month after Catalan separatists wanting to break away from Spain won a regional election.

Separatist parties won a slim majority in the parliament of the wealthy Spanish region of Catalonia, a result that looks likely to prolong political tensions which have damaged Spain's economy and prompted a business exodus from the region.

The result battered Spanish stocks, with Spain's IBEX .IBEX falling as much as 1.1 percent as European bourses opened. Financial stocks were the biggest drag on stock indices across the region, with the euro zone banks index falling 0.8 percent. .SX7E

The pan-European STOXX index .STOXX , dipped only 0.1 percent as Spanish stocks dominated the biggest fallers, confirming analyst expectations that any shake-out from the Catalonia vote would be mostly confined to Spain.

Germany's DAX .GDAXI edged down 0.1 percent, in line with France's CAC 40 .FCHI.

Spanish stocks were Europe's best-performing benchmark for much of the year, before October's independence referendum sent the IBEX tumbling. It was last 9 percent down from its May peak.

The euro momentarily dipped to $1.1817 EUR= earlier in the day as preliminary results from regional votes on Thursday showed pro-independence parties in Catalonia keeping an absolute majority. It trimmed losses to last stand at $1.1853, down 0.2 percent.

"This is Groundhog Day, we have been here," said Christopher Peel, chief investment officer at Tavistock Wealth. "I just don't think the Spanish government can do anything other than come to the table now."

He added that thin liquidity due to the holidays could be accentuating what he called a kneejerk reaction on the IBEX. "Likely there's some hedge funds leaning on it, but in terms of long-only money I don't think there will be much movement now."

Spain's 10-year borrowing costs ES10YT=TWEB rose 5 basis points to a one-month high of 1.52 percent in early trades, before settling back at 1.49 percent.

The premium investors demand for holding Spanish bonds over top-rated German peers DE10YT=TWEB widened 6 bps to around 111 bps at one stage.

ASIAN STOCKS RISE

The MSCI index of world stocks was flat. .MIWO00000PUS

The Asia-Pacific region's equities took cues from Wall Street, after all three of its indexes posted gains overnight on strength in bank and energy stocks and news the U.S. economy grew in the third quarter at its fastest pace in more than two years. .N U.S. stocks this week, and by extension global equities, was the passage through Congress of a $1.5 trillion tax-cutting bill.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was 0.5 percent higher.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.3 percent .HSI and Shanghai .SSEC dipped 0.1 percent.

Australian stocks .AXJO advanced 0.15 percent, South Korea's KOSPI .KS11 gained 0.45 percent and Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose 0.15 percent.

The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against a basket of peers, was up 0.1 percent .DXY .

Bitcoin fell as much as 14.7 percent to below $14,000 on the Bitstamp exchange BTC=BTSP on Friday, last trading at $13,400. cryptocurrency, which was at about $1,000 at the start of the year, had climbed to a record high of $19,666 on Sunday.

In commodities, U.S. crude futures CLc1 slipped 0.5 percent to $58.07 per barrel, an earlier rise losing steam as traders sold to adjust positions ahead of the year-end. O/R

The contracts had reached a nine-day peak of $58.38 overnight as OPEC started working on plans for an exit strategy from its deal to cut crude supplies, fuelling hopes it would not end supply cuts abruptly. O/R

Brent LCOc1 was down 0.3 percent at $64.72 a barrel after closing Thursday at $64.90 a barrel, its highest since June 2015.

The broader rise in commodities this week -- copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 reached a two-month high on Thursday -- lifted the Australian dollar to $0.7718 AUD=D4 , its highest since Nov. 2.

For Reuters Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets

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