Europe close: Spanish stocks clobbered
Stocks on the other side of the Channel traded lower for the most part, with the heaviest selling to be seen among Spanish issues ahead of a speech by Catalan president Carles Puigdemont scheduled for later in the day.
Nevertheless, according to one well-known analyst from the City, the selling in Spanish shares followed a speech by King Philip VI overnight criticising "certain" Catalan officials for showing a reiterated, deliberate and conscious disregard for the Law.
At the closing bell, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 0.08% or 0.32 points at 390.40, while the German Dax was in fact higher by 0.53% or 67.87 points at 12,970.52.
Shares on the periphery on the other hand were getting knocked down, with the Cac-40 down 0.29% or 15.46 points to 5,351.84, alongside drops of 1.44% and 2.85% in Italy's FTSE Mibtel and Spain's Ibex 35 to 22,456.38 and 9,964.90, respectively.
Stock in Catalan lenders Caixabank and Banco Sabadell were again in investors' sights, retreating by 5.51% and 5.69%.
In parallel, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Spanish government note was lower by six basis points to 1.78% - albeit off an intraday high of 1.79%.
"To the citizens of Catalonia - all of them - I want to reiterate how for decades now we have lived in a democratic state whose constitutional framework provides channels through which anyone can defend his or her ideas. Because as we know, without respect for the rule of law it would be impossible to live in peace and democratically, be it Catalonia or in the rest of Spain nor anywhere else. Within a democratic and constitutional Spain there is space for dialogue for all citizens," Philip VI said in a televised address on Tuesday evening.
Acting as a backdrop, the president of Spain's Catalan region was scheduled to give a speech at 2000 BST. The news came amid local reports citing officials from the CuP party, a member of the governing coalition in Catalonia, who said Puigdemont would make a formal declaration of independence on 9 October.
Meanwhile, on the economic front, IHS Markit's final reading on its composite Eurozone purchasing managers' index printed at 56.7 for September versus 55.7 in August, in-line with a preliminary estimate.
In other news, Eurostat reported a 0.5% month-on-month decline in euro area retail sales volumes, which fell far short of the 0.3% rise economists had penciled in.