Fitch cuts 18 Spanish banks rating

The international ratings agency Fitch has cut its credit ratings on 18 Spanish banks, including Bankia, after its downgrade of Spain last week.  "The institutions affected by today's rating actions are purely domestic banks. Thus, their revenue generation capacity, risk profile, funding access and cost of funding are highly sensitive to the evolution of Spain's economy and its housing market," Fitch said in a statement.  Bankia's long-term issuer default rating was cut to BBB from BBB+ with a negative outlook, the ratings company said.  CaixaBank was reduced to BBB from A-, Banco Sabadell to BBB from BBB+ and Banco Popular Espanol to BBB- from BBB, Fitch said.  Spain on June 9 sought a European bailout of as much as 100 billion ($125 billion) to support ailing lenders, the fourth euro member to seek a rescue since the debt crisis started almost three years ago.  Fitch, which estimates the capital needs of Spanish banks at as much as 60 billion under a "base case" scenario, said it had considered its sovereign downgrade for Spain on June 7 and also the potential for loans of certain banks to worsen in taking Tuesday's actions on the lenders.  In another development, Spanish borrowing costs jumped to the most in the history of the euro as European government bonds slumped on concern policy makers aren't doing enough to prevent the currency bloc's financial woes from deepening, according to the (Economic Times).  French securities slid with benchmark German bunds as Fitch Ratings said it may cut credit grades across Europe because policy makers are failing to demonstrate they can bring the debt crisis under control. The yield on Italian 10-year securities jumped to the most since January as the country prepared to sell bonds on June 14.  Germany will offer 10-year bunds, Europe's benchmark securities, on Wednesday, after Austria and the Netherlands auctioned debt on Tuesday. "People are getting frustrated, there is disaffection with Europe and the situation is not getting any clearer for investors," said Gianluca Ziglio, an interest-rate strategist at UBS in London.  "Many are deciding that they would rather stay out of the market for a while, even in the core countries." Spain's 10-year yield rose 20 basis points, or 0.2 per centage point, to 6.71% at 4:09 pm London time, after reaching 6.83%, the highest since the euro was introduced in 1999.  The 5.85% bond maturing in January 2022 fell 1.37, or 13.70 per 1,000 ($1,246) face amount, to 93.985. Ratings in the currency bloc, including those of AAA nations, are under "strong downward pressure," Fitch managing director Ed Parker said in Oslo on Tuesday.