In Brief
Government bond trade volume rises in June The volume of Greek government debt traded on the central bank’s electronic system (HDAT) rose to 27.7 billion euros in June from 20.2 billion in May, the Bank of Greece said yesterday. Trading volume was up year-on-year as 26.7 billion euros of Greek bonds had changed hands in June 2008. Daily average turnover last month rose to 1.32 billion euros from 1.01 million in May. Government bond yields fell, in line with the performance seen in the rest of the eurozone. The biggest decline was seen in five-year government paper with the yield dropping 54 basis points to 3.69 percent. The 10-year bond yield dropped 42 basis points to 5.05 percent, making for a steeper curve at the end of June. The yield difference between 30- and 3-year bonds widened to 309 bps from 278 at the end of May. The average monthly yield spread between Greek and German 10-year benchmark bonds remained steady at 179 bps. (Reuters) Attica Bank to raise capital with rights issue Attica Bank will seek shareholder approval next week to raise 152 million euros via a rights issue, its board decided yesterday. The bank, with a current market capitalization of 304 million euros, will issue 108,838,032 new common registered shares, 8-for-10, at 1.40 euros each. The extraordinary shareholders meeting will take place on July 8. The government, which owns preference shares after Attica Bank’s participation in a liquidity support scheme, will not exercise its rights, the bank said. (Reuters) Turkish CPI Turkey’s consumer prices rose 0.11 percent in June, higher than a forecast unchanged level, but well within the comfort zone for the central bank to cut rates further to help Turkey’s recession-struck economy. Turkish Statistics Institute figures yesterday showed the CPI index posted a year-on-year rise of 5.73 percent, and the producer price index rose 0.94 percent on the month, above a forecast rise of 0.14 percent, for an annual fall of 1.86 percent. (Reuters) Turk Telekom Turkey’s privatization body has not begun the process of selling a second tranche of state-owned shares in Turk Telekom, it said yesterday after reports an offering was planned for 2010. Two Turkish newspapers said Turkey’s Privatization Administration was planning to sell a 15 percent stake in Turk Telecom, which is also active in the Internet service provider and mobile sectors, by the first quarter of next year. (Reuters) NIS job cuts Serbia’s oil monopoly NIS, majority owned by Russia’s Gazpom Neft reported a loss in the first quarter and will cut 2,000 managerial jobs to improve efficiency, CEO Kiril Kravchenko said yesterday. (Reuters)
