Spanish/German bond yield spread widens

 

The premium investors demand to hold Spanish government bonds rather than benchmark German debt rose on Tuesday, as tension among the euro zone's peripheral issuers remained high although traded volumes were low.

"We haven't really seen much going through, I think maybe people are waiting for the ECB to step up their purchases and start buying Spain" a trader said. The Spanish/German 10-year bond yield spread widened to 243 basis points from around 234 bps at Monday's settlement.

The equivalent Portuguese yield spread earlier widened to 334 bps, before contracting to 330 bps, 8 bps wider on the day. Traders cited small central bank buying of Portuguese debt.