ECB STEPPED UP BOND BUYING - ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet made no dramatic announcements yesterday on stepping up a government bond purchase programme, but pressure on Irish borrowing costs eased.
Domenico Crapanzano, from the London office of the investment banking group Jefferies and Co, said the ECB had been in the market buying Portuguese and Irish bonds yesterday, and had been buying 'four or five times as much' as it had been buying previously. He said the ECB was now 'the only buyer in town' for these bonds..
Asked about German chancellor Angela Merkel's proposal to make bondholders share any losses, Mr Crapanzano said the bond markets needed to get to equilibrium, but what Germany was proposing was a big shift and markets would need time to adjust to it.
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CURRENCIES - The euro is worth $1.3230 and 84.65p sterling.
