Barclays

Petra Diamonds cut through a rough period for South Africa to print a $650m five year bond this week — but the deal is not evidence that the market is open to all borrowers from the country as Petra outshines the rest, said bankers.

L-Bank shattered its sterling size record on Wednesday, exceeding the expectations of even its leads with a £500m five year deal.

Shares in Tullow Oil, the Anglo-Irish oil and gas drilling company, closed 5.5% higher on Thursday on an adjusted basis, after they began trading ex-rights before its £607m rights issue.

The dollar market was on spectacular form on Wednesday, with a Canadian province pushing out a rare 10 year bond, a supranational smashing its size record and a $4bn five year from a German agency.

NLFI, the organisation that manages investments for the Dutch government, has completed its second block trade of shares in ASR Nederland, the insurer that was nationalised during the financial crisis.

Norilsk Nickel printed a new six year bond 15bp inside its curve on Wednesday, but the volume of orders that dropped from the order book from the order book suggested that not all were happy with the pricing.

Petra Diamonds became the first South African issuer to test the markets in the wake of an aggressive cabinet reshuffle that saw the dismissal of respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan last week.

Public sector borrowers are lining up a three pronged attack on Wednesday in a dollar market that is enjoying its widest swap spreads of the year. Quebec is attempting the first 10 year dollar benchmark since the first week of the year, KfW is out in fives — a part of the curve that has also become attractive in euros — and the Inter-American Development Bank is coming at the short end.

The European Financial Stability Facility has launched a dual tranche, picking up a combined €5bn and putting to rest any concerns over its ability to pick up long dated funding.

Russian borrowers are wasting no time in dealing with the $7.29bn of corporate bonds about to come due. After a record $2.8bn poured into the asset class last week, it is easy to see why borrowers view this as the time to tap the market.

A pair of European borrowers debuted socially responsible investment bonds on Monday, raising a combined €1.2bn, with one able to tighten its price by several basis points.

The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) will kick off its second quarter funding programme with a dual tranche. The deal hits screens as the European Central Bank cuts its asset purchase programme from €80bn per month to €60bn per month.