NTMA successfully raises €500m in sale of three-month bonds

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has successfully auctioned a further €500 million in three-month Treasury Bills.

Taking advantage of positive investor sentiment towards Ireland, the NTMA received total bids amounting to €2.1 billion - 4.2 times the amount on offer. The three-month notes were sold at an annualised yield of 0.105 per cent.

Ireland's borrowing costs have been trading near record lows of late on foot of two recent credit upgrades and further European Central Bank stimulus measures, including an interest rate cut, earlier this month.

The NTMA has raised €6.5 billion of Ireland’s long-term money this year already, bringing it 81 per cent of the way towards its full-year funding target of €8 billion.

Today, the yield on 10-year Irish bonds remained at 2.4 per cent, keeping the State’s borrowing costs below those of the UK.

Investors are buying bonds of peripheral euro zone states amid signs the region’s debt crisis may be over.

The so-called "yield grab" was fuelled earlier this month by comments from ECB chief Mario Draghi that Frankfurt was prepared to take more action if the new measures fall flat.