Ireland sells €500m of bonds

Ireland sold €500 million of three-month treasury bills at a rate of 0.24 per cent this morning, its first bond auction since the promissory note deal.

The sale was heavily subscribed with 3.3 times more bids made than the number of bonds on offer.

It is the second bond auction this year as €500 million worth of bonds were sold on January 17th with a yield of 0.2 per cent, better than the 0.55 and 0.7 per cent at the two preceding sales.

NCB Stockbrokers chief economist Philip O’Sullivan said “We would expect to see strong appetite from investors for Thursday’s auction, building on the improved sentiment arising from the recent promissory note deal.”

The National Treasury Management Agency will hold three auctions in the first quarter of this year as it hopes to reach a €10 billion funding target in 2013 as the country prepares to exit its bailout programme.