Developments in the Greek government bond market - April 2003
14/05/2003 - Press Releases
Subject: Developments in the Greek government bond market – April
2003
Markets were volatile in April as investors’ attention started
shifting to economic fundamentals on the back of gradually receding geopolitical tensions.
The performance of Greek government bonds was in line with the rest of
the eurozone. Price volatility was relatively high and, after a correction during the
first half of April, bond prices started rising again recovering part of earlier losses.
On the electronic secondary securities market (HDAT), bond prices in all maturities closed
down except the 3-year bond that closed April virtually unchanged, at 99.47 from 99.46 in
March. The 20-year bond (22.10.2022) was at 111.24 (yielding 4.98%) at the end of April,
down from 111.70 (4.95%) a month earlier. The 10-year benchmark bond (20.5.2013) traded at
102.27 (4.31%) down from 102.41 (4.29%), respectively. The 10-year average yield spread
over Bunds narrowed further to 20 basis points (bps) in April from 23 bps in March.
The yield curve steepened slightly, as yields at the short end of the
curve remained unchanged while they rose at the long end. The 3- to 20-year bond yield
spread widened to 206 bps at the end of April from 203 bps at the end of March. The 3-year
bond yield remained at 2.92% on April 30 as it was on March 31 and the 20-year bond yield
rose to 4.98% from 4.95%, respectively.
The turnover in HDAT was EUR 39 billion in April compared to EUR 51.14
billion in March and EUR 38 billion in April 2002. Of the 7,029 orders executed on HDAT,
50.83% were “buy” orders and 49.17% “sell” orders. Medium to long-term maturity
bonds attracted 65.70% of the total turnover. Amongst individual bonds, the 10- and
20-year benchmark bonds were the most actively traded, with EUR 5.3 billion and EUR 5.2
billion worth of transactions, respectively. Liquidity of the 10-year benchmark, as
measured by the ratio of the monthly traded volume over the amount outstanding, declined
to 106 % in April from 134% in March.