LONDON: Gilts fell in thin early trade on Monday broadly in line with Bunds, while investors positioned for a busy week of British data releases.
German Bunds opened slightly lower as riskier assets were underpinned by some progress towards averting a US fiscal crisis and expectations for more monetary stimulus in Japan after elections.
This week a slew of British data will be released, including inflation, a revised estimate of third-quarter GDP and minutes from the Bank of England's policy meeting earlier this month.
"Gilts look to data leads," Lloyds strategists said in a note, adding that pre-holiday trade was likely to result in exaggerated market moves.
"As markets enter the final trading week ahead of the upcoming festive period, market depth and liquidity is expected to be at a premium... Under such conditions intra-day moves are likely to be overly impacted by intervening new news."
At 0901 GMT, the March gilt future was 12 ticks lower at 118.30, while the equivalent Bund was 4 ticks lower.
Ten-year gilt yields rose 2 basis points to 1.88 percent, with their spread over equivalent Bund yields steady at 51 basis points.
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