Spanish Treasury raises €3 bn at high interest rates

The Spanish Treasury on Tuesday placed bonds worth of 3.07 billion euros (4.02 billion U.S. dollars) on the market, paying the highest interest rate so far this year and registering a high demand of around 8 billion euros. A total of 934 million euros worth of 3-month bonds had an average interest rate of 0.87 percent, higher than 0.33 percent at the last auction. A further 2.14 billion euros of 9-month bonds fetched an average interest rate of 1.4 percent, up from the previous 0.78 percent. After the auction, Spain's risk premium stood at 320 points while Spain's interest rate on 10-year bonds stood at 4.97 percent. For the first time since February, the key rate passed 5 percent on Tuesday. The IBEX-35 stock market in Madrid saw Spain's risk premium climb several points this week, passing the 330-point mark indicating an increase of tensions in the Spanish stock market which also had an impact on Tuesday's auction. This is the last auction of the first semester of the year. Spain has so far auctioned around 130 billion euros on the market covering between 55 percent and 60 percent of the country's total financial needs for 2013. The Spanish treasury will hold another auction on July 4.