Austrian Sovereign

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.

As European sovereigns gear up for a busy period of auctions in late August and September, here are the latest funding figures for selected issuers.

France, Germany and Spain held well received auctions of medium to long term debt this week. Here is a round-up of key European sovereigns' funding figures.

A pair of issuers raised €3bn at the mid to long end of the curve on Tuesday, ahead of potential volatility at the end of the week caused by central bank meetings, US holidays and data releases.

Austria’s OeBB Infrastruktur became the second issuer to attempt a euro benchmark after the FOMC plunged markets into turmoil last week. Unlike its compatriot Asfinag, which sold a €750m 20 year earlier this month OeBB managed to get a benchmark sized issue done but suspicions away from the trade were that it relied upon heavy lead manager support.

This week's funding scorecard focuses on some of Europe's key sovereigns. Next week's scorecard will offer an update on Spanish regions and gencies.