Day of reckoning arrives for balance-sheet basket cases

London

IT'S a new era for Europeans who for eight years got accustomed to watching companies with the worst balance sheets do nothing but rally. Now those stocks are getting crushed by rising bond yields, a trend strategists see continuing.

Companies with the highest debt ratios have tanked 5.5 per cent this month, the worst showing versus the Stoxx Europe 600 Index since 2008, data compiled by Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Bloomberg show.