A man talks on his mobile phone beside at the reception hall of the Athens stock exchange, yesterday. Traders were still betting on Greece exiting the European single currency region
AFP/London

World stocks and the euro rose yesterday amid hopes of more stimulus measures from the US Federal Reserve and despite strains on Spain and poor investor sentiment in Germany.
European and US equities shrugged aside Asian indices that mostly closed lower as the leaders of the world’s major economies embarked on the final day of the G20 summit determined to kickstart world growth.
The gains followed a successful Spanish bond auction and was fuelled by hopes that the US Federal Reserve would move to boost the world economy during two days of meetings that began yesterday.
But traders were still betting on Greece exiting the European single currency region despite weekend elections that saw Greece’s two main pro-austerity parties win enough votes to form a government.
In a further blow to the eurozone, a survey revealed that German investor confidence plummeted in June, sustaining its steepest fall in nearly 14 years on growing concerns about Spain’s banking system.
Spain succeeded in raising €3.04bn ($3.8bn) in a short-term debt sale yesterday but its borrowing costs soared.
At close, London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index finished the day up by 1.73% at 5,586.31 points.
In Frankfurt, the Dax 30 rallied 1.84% to 6,363.36 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 rose by 1.69% to 3,117.92 points.
In Madrid the Ibex 35 climbed 2.67% to 6693.9 points, while in Milan the FTSE Mib index soared 3.35%.
In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.95%, while the S&P 500 was up 1.09% and the Nasdaq was up 1.26%.
Meanwhile, a financial source said that a detailed audit of Spain’s stricken banks, which is to follow a first examination due by tomorrow, had been delayed to September from late July.
It is the second of two audits ordered for the banks, many of which are struggling with balance sheets heavily exposed to a property bubble that collapsed in 2008.
Spain’s government won agreement on June 9 for its eurozone partners to extend a rescue loan of up to 100bn euros to salvage the crisis-hit banks.
In foreign exchange deals, the euro rose to $1.2690 from $1.2571 late on Monday in New York. The dollar fell to ¥78.95 from ¥79.11 on Monday.
On the bond markets, borrowing prices for Spain and Italy dropped, but were still near levels that traders said would push the countries towards a full blown bailout.
In Spain, the yields on benchmark 10-year bonds stood at 6.999 in late trading, compared with 7.117 late on Monday.
Anything over 7.0% is considered unsustainable and is the point above which Ireland, Portugal and Greece were forced into asking for their rescue packages.
Madrid is struggling with a banking crisis in addition to a miserable financial situation with soaring unemployment and a huge fiscal deficit.
Italian 10-year bonds carried a yield of 5.902%, down from 6.067% on Monday.