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French building materials producer Saint Gobain received overwhelming demand for its second benchmark issuance of 2018. A combined order book of €7bn meant the issuer could have sold a much larger deal than the €1bn size limit it imposed on itself.

Dutch registered machinery and vehicle manufacturer CNH Industrial achieved an order book nearly three times oversubscribed for its first corporate bond sale since Standard & Poor’s raised the company rating to BBB.

Like many corporate bond market participants Bluebay Asset Management has been keeping a close eye on the volatility that has been and likely will be further caused by emerging markets, political events in Italy and the ongoing Brexit negotiations.

The positive tone in the corporate bond market and some excellent recent results for those issuers who have sold new deals has resulted in a number of companies announcing plans for transactions. The buoyant pipeline is a cause of optimism among bankers, despite no deals being marketed on Tuesday.

Gas asset and infrastructure investment consortium Quadgas made its debut in the sterling corporate bond market on Monday with a £350m 11 year offering. The company had previously raised funds from the US private placement market, but this was its first benchmark public deal.

Swiss flavours and fragrance manufacturer Givaudan is a regular user of the Swiss franc corporate bond market, but sold its first euro deal this week to help refinance the funding of its €1.25bn acquisition of French natural ingredients supplier Naturex.

UK property company Grosvenor Britain & Ireland placed three private placements with six different investors this week, two of which were new to the credit. Some of the funds will go towards the firm's plans to help ease the UK's housing shortage.

Cigna Healthcare ended weeks of speculation on Thursday when it hit the dollar market with a $20bn trade to finance its acquisition of Express Scripts.

Daimler raised £500m when it reopened the sterling corporate bond market two weeks ago following the summer break — and nothing more was seen in the currency until this week, when two deals raised a combined £1.1bn.

Dutch grid operator Stedin and French utility Suez offered investors more of the same when they tapped into what has been strong demand for longer dated corporate bonds on the same day, but found that appetite is starting to wane.

Elliott, the activist hedge fund has sold 6.3% of its shares in a 15m block trade of Charter Court Financial Services, the UK challenger bank said on Wednesday.

US telecoms giant AT&T has historically used the sterling corporate bond market for longer dated issuance. However, on Thursday, it sold an eight year deal in the currency – its shortest tenor in sterling since 2009.