Risk appetite buoyed after Greek debt sale

Financial Times
April 19, 2011

European stocks made a modest comeback after the sharp falls of the previous session thanks to upbeat earnings announcements and the successful sale of short-term Greek bonds.

Athens sold €1.625bn of 13-week notes and although the yield demanded by investors was 4.1 per cent – up from the 3.85 per cent paid at its last sale of these notes in February – there was healthy demand with orders for 3.5 times the bonds on offer.

The euro climbed after the sale and the pan-European FTSE Eurofirst 300 index reclaimed 0.4 per cent to 1,117.1 after falling 1.7 per cent in the previous session in the wake of Standard & Poor’s revising its long-range outlook on US debt from stable to negative.

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