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China’s Ministry of Finance sold Rmb5bn ($755.5m) of offshore RMB bonds on Thursday, and managed to keep the coupons of the two tranches below last year’s levels. But analysts say the sovereign’s success was limited by a modest fundraising target, which partly reflects the shift of focus to onshore Chinese bonds.

The last week of June and the first week of July have traditionally heralded the start of the Wimbledon tennis championships. This year, however, the corporate bond markets have also seen a lot of back and forth as investors remain sensitive to potential risks.

Want Want China Holdings became the first issuer from Taiwan to tap the onshore Panda market last week, the company told GlobalRMB. But it is unclear how strong an appetite the food manufacturer has for this asset class, having raised just Rmb500m ($75m) in its debut.

A longer than usual list of CEEMEA issuers tried and failed to print bonds in the first half of this year, but only a select few are likely to return in the second half, said emerging market bankers in London.

Dutch residential property company Vesteda offered euro corporate bond investors the first deal of July on Tuesday when it sold a €500m eight year trade to help refinance its acquisition of the Amstel Tower apartment block in Amsterdam.

Car manufacturer Toyota’s Australian finance arm ended a 14 year hiatus from issuing bonds in sterling when it sold the first sterling corporate bond of the second half of 2018. The return of such an issuer will help fuel optimism that issuance in the currency in the second half of the year may help to redress the balance after one of the lowest volumes of first half issuance in the last decade.

As the second half of 2018 started, the corporate bond pipeline was healthy. The immediate problem for the market to solve was not one of supply or demand, but how it might handle turbulence if the German government was to break up.

The Kingdom of Bahrain’s five year CDS spread has plummeted as investors’ fears of the country’s inability to meet the repayment of its $750m November 2018 sukuk began to recede after a statement of support from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. But analysts and syndicate officials are being clear that this is only the first step to Bahrain regaining access to the capital markets.

German construction firm Hochtief opted for a €500m no-grow deal when it came to market for the first time as a rated company this week. The company gained a BBB rating from Standard & Poor’s in May 2017.

Two German issuers sold corporate bonds on Tuesday and on Thursday, mobile phone operator O2 Telefónica Deutschland made it a German treble the following day.

The US dollar bond market ended a record-breaking month on a downbeat note as borrowers stayed on the sidelines amid a poor technical backdrop. Charter Communications became the first SEC registered issuer of the week on Thursday with a long five year trade and the only two other benchmark trades were from 144A issuers on Tuesday.

The Republic of Srpska, an autonomous entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has printed its five year Eurobond, but the final size fell short of the hoped for €200m.