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Corporate issuers from Chile, Colombia and Uruguay are among those expected to tap international debt markets in coming weeks as low Latin American new issue supply — thanks to the absence of Brazilian companies — is making investors hungry for new bonds.

BBVA’s Colombian subsidiary rode on the scarcity of LatAm FIG paper and local recognition to price tightly a $400m subordinated tier two deal on Thursday.

A number of companies in the consumer discretionary sector have seen substantial inflows as investors buy call options to take advantage of upside exposure and cheap premiums.

The public sector bond market in euros is groping for direction in the aftermath of European Central Bank buying that has vaporised secondary levels. Issuers and bankers are assessing how secondary levels compare with where investors other than the ECB would buy in size.

Pemex proved all the benefits of treating European investors right on Tuesday, with its first dual tranche issue in euros and largest ever transaction in the currency.

Investors mobilised this week, revolting against the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing programme, forcing eurozone periphery sovereigns to fund themselves at yields that predate central bank buying for the first time since the ECB’s public sector purchase programme began last month.

The European high yield market this week was in ebullient mood as borrowers left behind the Easter holidays and brought a wide variety of deals to market.

Merlin Properties, the largest Spanish real estate investment trust, has announced a fully underwritten rights issue, to raise €613.8m, a 50% capital increase. It is also considering bond issuance in future.

Covered bond yields and spreads are spiralling lower. The prospect that wafer thin margins grow thinner has led to a legitimate concern that a turning point in investor tolerance may follow.

Equity capital market bankers, still giddy from a huge first quarter, are hoping for similarly large volume in the next few months. But several events, not least among them the UK general election, could yet jam the pipeline.

Supranational issuers are the big winners in the world of ultra-low money market yields, after their first quarter euro commercial paper issuance soared by 92%.

It has become harder for German companies to obtain tax rulings for hybrid capital issues, but that has not stopped them issuing — even if it has diminished some of the accounting benefits, writes Richard Metcalf.