Euro, equities falter amid questions over Ireland bailout (AFP)
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LONDON (AFP) – The euro and European stock markets faltered on Monday, giving up early gains as investors questioned whether Ireland's EU/IMF bailout would really herald the end of the eurozone's debt crisis.
"News that the Irish government were going to accept assistance with a debt bailout package certainly gave traders something to cheer about at the start of the week," said sales trader Will Hedden at betting firm IG Index.
"But there seems to be a creeping realisation that this won't necessarily mark the end of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis."
In late morning deals, the European single currency dipped to 1.3720 dollars, having earlier spiked as high as 1.3786 dollars in reaction to the news from debt-ridden Ireland over the weekend.
European shares also trimmed earlier gains, with London up 0.08 percent, Frankfurt gaining 0.37 percent and Paris adding 0.13 percent.
Dublin sank 0.87 percent percent, after the once-proud Celtic Tiger was forced on Sunday to apply for the eurozone's second emergency rescue this year.
Madrid nosedived 0.95 percent amid heightened worries that Spain could be the next nation to appeal for help over its battered public finances.
"Ireland may have accepted a bailout this weekend but the eurozone's debt crisis is far from over," said research director Kathleen Brooks at trading site Forex.com.
The pressure on Irish government bonds eased early on Monday as the market took on board the news.
But the pressure on some other weak eurozone states such as Portugal -- which last week called on Dublin to take the aid money so as to help calm the markets -- showed no improvement, with yields or rates on Portuguese bonds rising.
"Portugal and Spain -- and maybe even Italy -- have very high debt burdens and may eventually have to use the European bailout fund to access finance," Brooks said.
"Portugal's finance minister has said that if Portuguese bond yields spike above 7.0 percent then it is unsustainable for the government to borrow in the capital markets. Portugal's yields are currently 6.72 percent -- very close to that threshold.
"So, Ireland is just another chapter in the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis and is not the end of the story."
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said Sunday his government had applied for aid from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
While the amount had not yet been decided, he said it would be less than 100 billion euros (137 billion dollars).
The bailout request had been widely expected amid mounting speculation over the perilous state of Ireland's public finances, dealers said.
Dealers said that as time goes on, the markets will focus more on the terms and conditions, trying to get a fix on whether solving the Irish problem will ease wider concerns over the eurozone.
Irish finances were ravaged by a domestic property market meltdown and costly bank rescues arising from the global financial crisis. Tax revenues, meanwhile, have been savaged as a result of a vicious recession.
In a further twist on Monday, Moody's credit rating agency warned that it would most likely have to downgrade Irish sovereign debt by several notches in view of the costs of the EU/IMF rescue.
"A multi-notch downgrade, leaving the rating of the Republic (of Ireland) still within the investment-grade category, is now the most likely outcome of our review of the sovereign credit," Moody's said in an analyst note.
The euro and equities have faced heavy selling pressure in recent weeks due to the debt woes of Ireland and other struggling eurozone nations such as Greece, Portugal and Spain.
Ireland is the second eurozone country to seek an EU/IMF bailout in just six months after Greece was rescued in May with 110 billion euros.
Later this week, Dublin is expected to deliver a detailed plan to slash spending and raise taxes as the crisis-hit nation struggles to balance the books.
The four-year plan will aim to make 15 billion euros of budget savings by 2014.
