Greek govt bond trade volume rises sharply                             
                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Friday, 11 March 2011 15:12                                                                  
ATHENS:  The volume of Greek government debt traded on the central bank's HDAT  electronic system rose to 847 million euros ($1.2 billion) in February  from 707 million in January amid heavy selling, the Bank of Greece said  on Friday.
 The central bank said that out of the 635 orders  executed on trading platform HDAT last month, 71.9 percent were sell  orders and 28.1 percent were buy orders.
 Greece's borrowing costs have surged as markets  fret over its massive debt load. The average monthly spread between  Greek and German 10-year bond yields widened to an average of 862 basis  points in February from 827 bps in January.
 On Friday the spread was around 968 bps.
 Some 18.9 billion euros of government paper had changed hands in February 2010.
 Greek government bond yields rose in February, in line with the rest of the euro zone's periphery.
 The 3-year benchmark bond yield rose 107 basis  points to 14.3 percent. In longer tenors, the 10-year yield rose 37 bps  to 11.8 percent with 30-year paper yielding 8.84 percent, up 19 bps.
 As a result, Greece's yield curve steepened while  remaining inverted, with the difference between the 30- and 3-year bond  yields at 544 bps at end-February from 456 bps in January.
(Reuters)