European government bonds fell for a second day before sales of debt by Ireland and the Netherlands and as a rally in stocks sapped demand for fixed-income assets.
The decline put the 10-year German bund on course for its first quarterly loss since June. Ireland plans to sell as much as €1 billion euros of bonds today in its first auction in more than three years, while the
Netherlands is due to sell €2 billion of securities maturing between 2013 and 2016. Germany plans to sell five-year notes tomorrow.
The yield on the German bund, Europeâ's benchmark government security, rose two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 3.04 by 7:05 a.m. in London, extending its gain this quarter to nine basis points. The 3.75 per cent security due January 2019 fell 0.22, or 2.2 euros per 1,000-euro ($1,363) face amount, to 105.89.
The yield on the two-year note was little changed at 1.33 per cent, leaving it 42 basis points lower since December 31st.
Bloomberg