Spanish treasury places 5 bln euros on market

The Spanish treasury on Thursday placed treasury bonds valued at 5 billion euros (5.52 billion U.S. dollars) on the market, with lower interest rates than in previous auctions and a high demand of more than 11 billion euros.

A total of 1.081 billion euros worth of three-year lifespan carried an average interest rate of 0.18 percent, which was below the 0.384 percent of the previous issue held in February.

The placement also included 2.387 billion euros worth of five-year bonds that fetched an average interest rate of 0.517 percent, and 1.531 billion euros worth of 15-year bonds, which carried an average interest rate of 1.941 percent.

The Spanish risk premium stood at 95.40 after the auction, while Spain's 10-year bond interest rate stood at 1.32 percent.

So far, the Spanish treasury has placed around 40.4 billion euros of medium and long-term debt on the market, which represented 28.5 percent of the country's financial goals for the year, around 141.996 billion euros.

The Spanish treasury will hold more auctions on March 17, 19 and 24. (1 euro = 1.104 U.S. dollars) Endit