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* Moody's Investors Service has assigned a local currency issuer rating of A1 to the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. Moody's issuer ratings are opinions of the ability of entities to honour senior unsecured financial obligations. In the case of Hong Kong, the government has no direct obligations that are rated. However, Moody's has in the past said that A1 local currency ratings of two government-owned railway companies (the Mass Transit Railway Corporation and the Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation) were indicative of the government's ratings.

SIGNS THAT Asian bond spreads may have begun the long, slow road to recovery have been gaining strength following a 10 day run which has seen benchmark sovereign issues from the region tighten in by an average of 150bp. Typical was the Korea 10 year bond, which narrowed from a spread of 700bp to 560bp. The Indonesia bond due 2006 moved most in absolute terms, from 1,800bp to 1,500bp.

THE INDIAN government has postponed the sale of GDRs for Container Corporation of India (Concor) but will press ahead with a sale in the domestic market and will retain Warburg Dillon Read in the lead manager role. Bankers said that the deal could take place rapidly, although they were uncertain over whether an agreement had been reached on pricing. Previous efforts to sell Concor shares have been scuppered by the government's determination to price close to the market level, despite a tiny free float artificially inflating share prices.

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* Julie Roach has returned to London to take up the appointment as head of debt origination at HSBC Markets in London, covering the UK, Europe and emerging markets.

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Asset backed securities: * Dutch MBS 98-1 BV

Argentina * Republic of Argentina

* The new German government has decided to privatise Tak & Rast, a large chain of motorway service stations and restaurants. It will be sold to a consortium led by Allianz, the insurance group, for up to DM1.5bn ($860m), a move that would help plug gaps in the federal budget. This deal is part of a trend by vendors to sell assets either to long term financial investors or strategic partners if they would not attract fair valuations in the unpredictable stockmarket conditions.

By Eugéne Ballara and Toby Fildes

GAZPROM is rumbling back into the market looking for $2bn of new money. The debt is to support the development of a 1,200km pipeline -- called Blue Stream --from Russia's Black Sea region to the Turkish coast transporting gas.

* Caisse Centrale du Crédit Immobilier de France -- 3CIF Rating: A1/AA-/AA-