End-year gov’t bonds do well
Government bonds trading on the electronic secondary market (HDAT) in December had a positive performance in line with the rest of the eurozone, the Bank of Greece said yesterday. Price gains were in the range of 57-142 basis points (bps) among the benchmark bonds, with the 20-year bond, maturing on October 22, 2022, recording the highest gains. The 10-year benchmark maturing on May 20, 2013 closed at 101.31 with a yield of 4.42 percent at the end of December from 100.33 and 4.55 percent on November 28. The average monthly yield spread between the 10-year Greek and German benchmark bond widened marginally to 12 bps in December from 11 bps in the previous month. Market turnover was 34.02 billion euros in December, from 70.07 billion in November. For the third consecutive month investors’ interest focused on bonds, with remaining maturity between seven and 10 years that absorbed 17.10 billion euros. Among individual bonds traded on HDAT, the 10-year benchmark recorded the highest traded volume with 10.06 billion euros. Its liquidity, as measured by the ratio of the monthly traded volume over the amount outstanding, declined to 148 percent from 287 percent in November. Separately, the central bank announced that the ranking of primary dealers on the basis of their activity in the Greek government bond market in the period January-December 2003 is as follows: National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank, EFG Eurobank-Ergasias, Goldman Sachs, HSBC Bank, CSFB (Europe), Piraeus Bank, ING Bank, Emporiki Bank, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas, Citigroup Global Markets, JP Morgan Securities, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, San Paolo-IMI Bank, Deutsche Bank, and UBS.
