EURO GOVT-Bunds edge higher after euro zone meeting
LONDON | Tue May 17, 2011 2:12am EDT
LONDON May 17 (Reuters) - German government bonds inched up on Tuesday and
Greek bonds could come under further pressure after euro zone finance ministers said they may ask Greece's private creditors to extend the maturities on their bonds.
That was the first time ministers said they would consider such a move which would buy Athens more time to pay down its huge debt .
"
We knew we weren't going to get anything on Greece and it sounds like a rescheduling would be a last resort but it does acknowledge the mess Greece is in and so bonds can remain under pressure until we get something more concrete," a trader said.
June Bund futures FGBLc1 were 9 ticks higher at 124.22.
With no unexpected developments out of the finance ministers' meeting, Bunds were likely to stay in their recent trading range and will need to break above Friday's high of 124.63 to rise further, while Friday's and Wednesday's lows of 123.82 and 123.58 should offer support to the downside.
Two-year bond yields DE2YT=TWEB were flat at 1.808 percent, with 10-year yields DE10YT=TWEB also little changed at 3.114 percent.
Bunds were also supported by a lack of appetite for riskier assets with European shares
.FTEU3 expected to slip for the fourth straight session and a further slide in commodity prices.
Portuguese bonds could find modest support after ministers backed a 78 billion euro bailout of
Portugal but also insisted Lisbon seek agreement from private bondholders to maintain their exposure to its debt.
"As we've seen before, once the bailout is out of the way, the bonds tend to come under renewed pressure," the trader said.
Greece will test market sentiment with a sale of 1.25 billion euros of 13-week T-bills, while Spain will also sell up to 5.5 billion euros of 12- and 18-month paper.
"When the recent sell-off in periphery took hold, auction tails on liquid periphery bonds began to lengthen and the market would welcome any sign that this process has stabilised or inverted," said Credit Agricole rate strategist Luca Jellinek, suggesting that would be a positive signal for spreads.
However, Spanish bonds may lag any tightening by their euro zone peers ahead of the sale of 10- and 30-year bonds on Thursday.