Italy, Spain bond grow on Moody's downgrades

The yield on Italian and Spanish 10-year sovereign bonds rose beyond six percent on Friday after Moody's rating agency downgraded ratings for 16 Spanish financial institutions. The yield on Spain's 10-year bond grew six basis points to 6.39 percent, while yields on Italy's 10-year government bonds raised seven basis points to 6.05 percent as of 12:21 Moscow time (08:21 GMT). Moody's downgraded the long-term debt and deposit ratings of 16 Spanish banks on Thursday over their "adverse operating conditions and reduced creditworthiness of the Spanish sovereign ... which affects the ability of the government to support banks". The rating agency has also downgraded the ratings of 26 Italian banks this week due to "increasingly adverse operating conditions and mounting asset-quality challenges and weakened net profits."