Portugal issues 10-year bonds at record low yield

Portugal once again issued around 1.5 billion euros (about 1.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 10-year bonds at a new record low yield of 2.04 percent on Wednesday, Portugal's debt agency IGCP said.

Investors jumped at the opportunity, their demands to buy exceeding the bonds supply by 1.8 times or 2.7 billion euros.

"At these prices, it makes every sense for Portugal to finance itself on the market and gain momentum to pay off early the troika loan, which was made at higher rates," Filipe Silva, director of asset management at Banco Carregosa, told Portuguese Lusa News Agency.

The successful bonds sale follows on the heels of another record low yield on Feb. 11, when the country issued 1.25 billion euros in 10-year bonds at a yield of about 2.51 percent, with debt demand at 1.9 times greater than the amount offered.

Portugal signed a 78-billion-euro bailout program in May 2011 with the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank when it was on the verge of bankruptcy, and successfully exited that program in May last year.

Portugal's Finance Minister Maria Luis Albuquerque recently announced that Portugal would follow Ireland in making an early repayment to the IMF, taking advantage of low borrowing costs for European peripheral governments. Endit