Austrian Sovereign

Read on to see how selected benchmarks are faring in secondary. Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark as of Thursday's close. The source for secondary trading levels is Interactive Data.

This week's scorecard covers the funding progress of sovereign issuers, with every issuer with a funding year that matches the calendar year either over the halfway mark or approaching it. Next week's scorecard will deal with European supranationals and agencies.

Austria printed a super rare syndicated floating rate note at the tight end of guidance on Wednesday, as the sovereign also priced a 10 year deal in line with fair value and attracted around €10bn of orders to the dual tranche deal.

Austria could bring an unusual fixed and floating rate dual tranche deal on Wednesday, having mandated banks for a benchmark on Tuesday afternoon. The mandate is timed to take advantage of a short issuance window in euros this week. A holiday in the UK on Monday and Ascension Day in much of Europe on Thursday make Wednesday the only clear day for benchmark issuance in the currency.

This week's scorecard covers the funding progress of sovereign issuers, with Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands and Portugal all over the halfway mark on their programmes for the year. Next week's scorecard will deal with European supranationals and agencies.

Ireland's return to bond auctions last month helped the sovereign reach nearly 60% of its funding target for the year. Across the Irish sea, the UK started its financial year with a £2.577bn auction - and a reduced funding target of £128.4bn.

A remarkable start to the year for the eurozone periphery is in clear view in this month's sovereign funding scorecard. Just two months into the year, Portugal has completed more than half of its target, while Ireland is not far behind. At the other end of the volume spectrum, Spain is making good headway in tackling its €133.3bn target with 26% completed, while Italy — which has yet to sell a syndication this year — is behind on 18%.

The rampant start to 2014 by peripheral eurozone sovereigns is clear to see in this week's funding scorecard, with the region's comeback kids Ireland and Portugal halfway and a quarter way through their funding programmes already. Spain has also made promising progress in its attempt to hit what is its largest ever funding target, with nearly a fifth of its total already in the bag. Italy will look to move into double figures from its 4% status in the coming weeks with a widely expected syndication.

The end of November finds almost every sovereign in the scorecard more than 90% funded for the year. Italy's cause was helped in no small part by a bumper €22.3bn domestic inflation linked bond at the start of the month. The UK - with a funding year running from April March - is also well on track with 70% of its programme completed.

The sovereign funding scorecard expands beyond Europe this month with the addition of Japan. The country has a whopping ¥156.8tr (€1.2tr) target this year but is well on track having raised ¥136.2tr so far.

Austria, Belgium, Finland and the UK were among the European sovereigns to add to their funding totals with benchmark deals this month.

The EIB priced a long-dated EARN on Tuesday afternoon, its longest dated new issue in the format since 2010. The long tenor enabled the issuer to hit the 3% yield bogey that gets German insurance companies hot under the collar, but volatility around the euro swap rate meant that the borrower had to pay a decent new issue premium to be sure it could get the required size away.