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THE SURPRISE resignation of US Treasury secretary Robert Rubin and the shock sacking of Russian premier Yevgeny Primakov failed to dent yield-hungry investors' enthusiasm in what proved the biggest week for emerging markets since the Russian meltdown of August 1998.

Argentina * Republic of Argentina

Hypothekenbank in Essen provided the highlight of jumbo issuance this week with the launch of its latest global. Elsewhere, Rheinhyp launched a Eu500m five year jumbo and DePfa tapped the short end with a Eu1bn deal. Having been talked in the market for some time, Essenhyp's 4.25% July 2009 deal emerged on Monday via Commerzbank, HypoVereinsbank and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Bankers suggested that the deal could have hit the market earlier, had it not been for Golden Week in Japan and the uncertainty that has hit the long end of the curve.

* Bancaja International Finance Guarantor: Caja de Ahorros de Valencia Castellon y Alicante

* Republic of Austria

Market commentary:

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IN ONE OF the fastest, one of the largest, and certainly the smoothest of stock offers this year, bookrunner HSBC and joint lead managers Merrill Lynch, Cazenove and JP Morgan this week completed the $3bn sale of shares in HSBC Holdings. The deal was executed in under 12 hours.

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THE REPUBLIC of Hungary capitalised on the bullish market conditions at the start of the week, with the Baa2/BBB/BBB rated sovereign launching a $250m increase to its seven year global bond via ABN Amro and Salomon Smith Barney. Launched for $500m in early April, the original transaction was the first SEC registered global offering from the region.

AS US investors cast their net wider, high tech stocks took a back seat this week, allowing other sectors to shine. Time Warner Telecom proved a hit with investors and made a successful debut on Nasdaq midweek, rising almost 50% on its first day.

JP MORGAN & Co became the first foreign bank to launch a public issue in Singapore's domestic debt markets with this week's pricing of a S$200m issue. The self-led transaction was split into two tranches: with one tranche of S$100m five year paper priced at 99.776, with a semi-annual coupon of 4% to yield 4.05%; and one tranche of S$100m 10 year paper priced at 100.177 on a semi-annual coupon of 4.625% to yield 4.6%.