The European Central Bank's plan to buy bonds is proving moresuccessful at keeping borrowing costs for France and Belgium nearrecord lows than persuading investors to lend to Spain and Italyfor less.

Spain's three-year yield is back up to 3.83 percent afterdipping to 3.37 percent on Sept. 7, the day after ECB PresidentMario Draghi detailed his proposal to buy unlimited debt forcountries that agree to economic conditions in return for help.Since then, investors have lost 0.1 percent on Spanish debtrepayable in three year or less, and made 0.1 percent on Belgiannotes with similar maturities. The cost of insuring French debtagainst default has declined 24 percent, almost twice the 13percent drop in Italian default-swap costs.

“What Draghi has done has been beneficial to some degree, butthere's still skepticism in the market because Spain hasn't takenthe final step and asked for help,” said Adrian Owens at GAM Ltd.in London, which oversees $62 billion. “It doesn't change the factSpain still has a huge problem to tackle. France and Belgium areseen as a safer play.”