BMO Capital Markets

The investment grade corporate bond market has seen a “steady and sensible” start to April according to one investor as it attempts to stabilise following a volatile run through February and March.

Bank of Montreal raised £400m ($569m) of five year funding in covered bonds on Monday following £1bn deals from Santander UK and Nationwide last week. But with fewer sterling covered bonds redeeming after this month, primary activity is expected to slow down.

Rating: Aaa/AAA

Investors have begun to push back against ever tighter levels in the public sector dollar market, with a deeply sub-Libor trade this week failing to find full subscription. But there was not much concern ahead of next week’s Easter holidays, with some strong funding already raised in the first quarter and the new Federal Reserve chair’s first Federal Open Market Committee meeting passing this week without any great surprises.

The Nordic Investment Bank has announced that it will become the second borrower of the week to access the two year dollar market. The first, Kommunalbanken, scooped up $1.25bn on Tuesday.

Kommunalbanken announced a two year dollar benchmark on Monday, coming on the heels of a strong week for dollar issuance.

Rating: Aaa/AAA/AAA

The African Development Bank was awash with superlatives from SSA bankers watching on jealously as it printed a $2bn March 2021 global through mid-swaps on Wednesday. The supranational — like other SSAs in dollars this week — benefited from widening swap spreads that some analysts believe have further to go.

Public sector borrowers found buckets of dollar demand on Tuesday, as a French agency sold its largest ever benchmark in the currency and a supranational printed a trade at the upper end of its historical size range. Another supra is lined up to test whether that demand will hold on Wednesday.

The Province of Alberta printed a strong 10 year dollar benchmark on Thursday — the first in that maturity from an SSA since late January — leading the way for others to follow, said SSA bankers. Elsewhere, five years was very much in vogue in the dollar market — although there were some signs of investor fatigue by the end of the week, despite more issuers being expected to look at the tenor next week.

The Province of Alberta printed a strong 10 year dollar benchmark on Thursday — the first from an SSA since late January — leading the way for others to follow, said SSA bankers. Elsewhere, Export Development Canada was unable to move from price thoughts on a five year global.

Swedish Export Credit Corporation on Wednesday priced what bankers away from the deal said was a “very strong trade”, as it printed in the same five year tenor that has brought success for SSAs over the last few weeks. But one borrower is set to attempt a tenor that has not been visited since late January.