Government bonds

Alastair Marsh & Katie Linsell

Mario Draghi’s words have lost none of their potency. Just look at the bond market where the European Central Bank president’s hints about further stimulus soothed investors unsettled by turmoil from Ukraine to Iraq.

Greece plans to reopen its recent three- and five-year bond issues in the next two weeks, to top them up by as much as 1.5 billion euros, accepting treasury bills as payment instead of cash, a senior government source told Reuters on Monday.

The debt exchange is aimed at improving the functioning of the secondary bond market, boosting liquidity and tightening spreads.

 Finance Ministry prepares its next moves after the moderate success of three-year bond

By Sotiris Nikas

By Lukanyo Mnyanda & David Goodman

Greece raised 1.5 billion euros ($2.04 billion) in a debt sale that fell short of analyst estimates on size and yield as it took place amid a selloff in higher-yielding bonds across the euro area.

By Emelia Sithole-Matarise

Italian and Spanish bond yields nudged higher on Monday ahead of a slew of debt sales this week, but underlying sentiment in the lower-rated euro zone bonds remained firm thanks to a dovish European Central Bank.

By Sotiris Nikas

The remarkable decline in the interest rate of Greek bonds, particularly that of the recently issued five-year paper that has even dropped below 4 percent, is feeding rumors among investors that Athens is contemplating a new bond.

Public Power Corp SA, Greece’s largest electricity company, is returning to the bond market for the first time since 2000 as recovery takes hold in the nation that set off the euro region’s debt crisis.

Greece is planning to announce a sale of five-year notes via banks on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the matter, as the country that sparked Europe’s sovereign debt crisis returns from a bond-market exile.

 Despite more relaxed official statements, the Finance Ministry is gearing up for return to the markets

By Sotiris Nikas

Athens will issue its first bonds in four years later this week and will only sell them to foreign investors, sources have suggested.