Bunds press higher as growth concerns dominate

LONDON: Bund futures rose early on Monday, supported by weak performance in Asian stock markets where concerns over poor global growth kept investors looking for safe-haven assets.

The focus in the euro zone's continuing debt crisis was set to fall on data on European Central Bank bond-buying, while European stocks also looked set to resume their recent slide.

On the back of investors' push towards safe haven assets Bund futures rose 27 ticks to 135.58, within sight of record highs set last week at 136.26.

The ECB publishes details on Monday on how much it spent buying bonds issued by the region's peripheral states last week.

After announcing a record 22 billion euros of purchases a week ago, the market will be keen to gauge the cost of maintaining Italian and Spanish yields around the 5 percent mark.

Monday's data calendar offered little in the way of further clues on the health of the currency bloc's economy, with the market instead look ahead to purchasing managers' index and sentiment survey results due on Tuesday.

"We look for the majority of the leading indicators to have taken a plunge in August...Fears are mounting that the recovery might come to an abrupt end, not least substantiated by the collapse in some US business surveys," Commerzbank strategists said in a note.

Copyright Reuters, 2011