Spain, Italy yield spread, Bunds tighter

LONDON: The premium investors demand to hold Spanish and Italian government bonds rather than benchmark German Bunds fell on Thursday on reports China could buy bailout bonds for Portugal.

The Spanish/German 10-year government bond yield spread tightened 10 basis points on the day to 222 bps while the equivalent Italian spread was seven bps narrower at 162 bps.

"Technically we've been in 5.20-5.60 percent range on Spanish 10-year yields. We got up to 5.60 percent on Monday and since then come off that quite hard," a trader said.

"We're back towards the bottom of the range so would expect sellers to come back in around 5.20," he said.

The Spanish 10-year yield was last at 5.31 percent.

Greek bonds, however, remained under pressure, notably the front end with two-year yields rising 43 bps to 26.9 percent.

Copyright Reuters, 2011