A raft of European banks, healthcare companies and property firms have attracted a sudden spike in "short positions" over the past two weeks, according to figures from DataExplorers.

Financial stocks, considered to be in the frontline in the event of a full-blown attack on the euro, have been particularly targeted. Bolsas y Mercados Espanoles (BME), the operator of the financial markets in Spain, is showing a short position worth nearly 7pc of its €1.7bn market value, suggesting that traders are betting nearly €120m that its share price will fall. Spanish banks Banco de Sabadell and Banco de Valencia are also being shorted by hedge funds.

David Carruthers of DataExplorers said: "The Spanish financial firms stand out in the data as being targeted by short sellers. But the same pattern is being followed in other European stocks across the sectors."

Banco Popolare Societa Cooperativa, the first Italian bank to be bailed out during the financial crisis last summer, is showing a short position of 5.43pc of its market value, nearly 3pc of which has been placed in the past two weeks, according to the data.

In Germany, the short position in Infineon Technologies, the semiconductor company, has risen more than 6pc to 9.31pc. At Tui, the travel firm, nearly a quarter of the company's value is being shorted.

Experts said that although many of the companies have individual concerns for investors, the fears over the euro have exacerbated them in recent weeks.

Triggered by the Greek debt crisis, the financial strength of Spain, Italy and Ireland has been the focus of widespread market concern, with investors fearing the countries may be unable to repair their balance sheets alone.

Last week it emerged that speculators were betting record amounts against euro futures on the International Monetary Market on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), a closely-watched barometer.

The huge currency bets were taken as proof that the market is unconvinced that the more solvent European states will back the debts of their relatively strapped neighbours to the south. With fears spreading to corporates too, the wealthier nations, including Britain, will come under increasing pressure to come up with a solution quickly.

The CME figures have sparked fears that, like George Soros in the early 1990s, hedge funds will lay siege to the single currency. Since Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy cannot devalue or inflate their way out of the crisis, economists suspect that they will have to receive assistance from other euro nations to avoid inflicting cuts of unprecedented ferocity on their economies.

Economist Joe Stiglitz, who is advising the Greek government, has denied that the country would require a bail-out, and urged national authorities to intervene in markets to "teach the speculators a lesson".