Stocks and bonds boosted by European QE announcement

Stocks and bonds across Europe were boosted this afternoon as ECB President, Mario Draghi, announced details of the keenly awaited quantitative easing stimulus programme as the central bank battles to stave of deflation. The EUR 1.1 trillion plan will involve buying eurozone government bonds at a rate of EUR 60 billion a month until September 2016 and possibly longer if inflation shows no sign of reaching the ECB’s target rate of 2%.    The size of the programme and the time scale are bigger and longer than the market was expecting.  Stocks rose on the news as the Euro fell 1.5% against the US dollar and reached the lowest level against Sterling for seven years at EUR1.31. The 10-year Spanish Government bond yield, which moves inversely to bond prices, hit a record low of 1.46%.