Pre-migration untagged articles

From windswept Zurich, we hear from Frau Brunhilde Grossrösti, our celebrity Swiss bureau chief. She says that the local ski resorts are hurting badly, that the price of cream buns on the Bahnhofstrasse is outrageous and that the Russians have completely taken over from the Gulf Arabs as the biggest spenders in town.

Portugal Telecom was a big mover this week, but only as speculation grew about the nature of any financing associated with an LBO. It narrowed 50bp over the course of the week from 160bp last Thursday to a close yesterday (Thursday) of 110bp. It had also dealt at an intraday tight of 100bp.

The Bank of Russia has approved Sberbank's planned issue of 3.5m shares and may buy 25% of the deal to maintain its majority stake in Russia's largest bank, market participants in Moscow said this week.

After an extraordinary second week of January, the European financial institutions senior bond market saw flow subside slightly this week, although issuance remained healthy.

Caixa Galicia achieved attractive funding with its debut cédulas hipotecarias issue this week, pricing the Eu1.5bn 12 year deal at 9bp over mid-swaps, as demand in the covered bond market continued to outweigh the modest supply.

The story of the week in the index market was the rally of the Crossover Index through the 200bp barrier. It dealt at a low print of 198bp yesterday (Thursday), before nudging back out to a closing price of 201bp at the end. The Crossover was at 219bp a week ago.

The euro market came off appreciably following the stronger than expected US CPI data yesterday, recovered slightly but then closed weaker again, noted euro swaps dealers in London.

Press reports that Greece is preparing a 50 year bond are greatly exaggerated, according to Spyros Papanicolaou, director-general of the Hellenic Republic's public debt management agency, who described the reports as much ado about not very much.