Italy sells 7.29bn euros of government bonds

LONDON: Italy sold 7.29 billion euros of bonds on Thursday at its first bond auction in a month, including a new 10-year issue which drew solid demand.

The 10-year bond, which carries a 5.5 percent coupon , was sold at a gross yield of 5.82 percent and attracted bids worth 1.424 times the 4 billion euros sold.

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ALESSANDRO GIANSANTI, STRATEGIST, ING, AMSTERDAM

"I would say that the outcome is positive, they sold the entire 10-year and five-year offer. It's a positive thing that the 10-year yield was below the grey market, where it had reached 5.93 percent in pre-auction.

The Treasury was very good at taking advantage of this positive window, which remains open also because of expectations of a BCE intervention".