Bond

By Lucy Meakin

The yield premium investors demand to hold Italian bonds instead of German bunds rose from the least since May 2010 as investors considered the scale and form of anticipated European Central Bank sovereign-debt purchases.

By Anestis Dokas

Greek investors who have withdrawn some or all of their deposits in the last month-and-a-half are not panicking, aiming, instead at finding investment targets that would secure them positive returns, at least for the first half of the year, according to sources.

 Finance minister says there is little risk of a bank run, but political uncertainty may harm recovery

Senior European Central Bank officials said on Friday that the lender will not be buying any Greek bonds this month as part of its expected bond acquisition program and will definitely not have Greece?s debt to Frankfurt restructured, as poll-leading party SYRIZA has championed.

By David Goodman

For the first time in 15 months, Greek 10- year government bond yields are back above 10 percent.

Listed firm Selonda Aquacultures announced on Friday the signing on Wednesday of three corporate bond programs with banks, aimed at refinancing the fish farming company’s debts.

The bonds are worth 100 million, 8 million and 2 million euros.

Foreign investors bid for more than three times the amount of retail bonds offered by Cyprus in December and bought the vast majority of six-year issue, the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday.

Cyprus accepted bids for bonds worth 36.65 million euros from 49 investors after an initial offer of 10 million euros worth of bonds, financial authorities said.

Fitch Ratings has placed Piraeus Bank’s mortgage-covered bonds’ B+ rating on Rating Watch Evolving (RWE).

The rating action follows the segregation of new assets that the issuer put into the cover pool last week.

European Central Bank officials are considering ways to ensure weak countries that stand to gain most from a fresh round of money printing bear more of the risk and cost.

Greece’s government bonds rose on Wednesday before the first of as many as three presidential votes.

Greece’s three-year yield dropped 21 basis points to 10.63 percent after jumping 57 basis points on Tuesday.

The rate reached 11.13 percent last Friday, the most since the securities were sold via banks in July.

By James G. Neuger

Political tumult in Greece, plunging stock and bond markets, the threat of default and exit from the euro: the script is eerily similar to the nightmare scenarios of 2010 and 2011.

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