France has awarded Thursday 7.43 billion euros of long-term debt at better terms than in previous auctions, three days before the second round of presidential elections .
The Agence France Trésor (AFT) has issued an amount corresponding to the top of the announced range (6.5 to 7.5 billion euros).
Three of the four lines of Treasury bonds (OATs) offered the 4.25% in October 2017, the 3.25% in October 2021, the 3.0% in April 2022 (refer to the OAT ence to 10 years), interest rates have declined from previous auctions.
The weighted average rate of the OAT 6.0% in October 2025 stood at 3.31%. The AFT, which manages the state debt, does not provide a comparison, the bond not been available for many months.
The rate of OAT reference (benchmark) 10-year stood at 2.96% against 2.98% in April. After the auction, the rate fell further in the secondary market at 2.93%, the yield spread with the German Bund at 10 years, the euro area benchmark, contracting six basis points to 133.
Auctions of France and that of Spain, now the focus of investor concerns, helped ease the situation in the market for government bonds in the euro area.
The Spanish Treasury has placed 2.5 billion euros of bonds in three to five years – the maximum referred – but unlike AFT, he had to concede a higher risk premium than in previous auctions.
Overall demand for OAT reached 18.64 billion euros, providing a comfortable coverage ratio.
"It seems that the relative uncertainty of the presidential election has not weighed heavily. They managed to raise the maximum referred to lower rates and with a coverage ratio decent, "said John Davies, rates strategist at WestLB.
"Holland has softened his speech on the new fiscal pact (…) and said he just wanted to add stimulus to growth," he says, adding that the positions of President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi and Chancellor Angela Merkel have also evolved.
"We realize that the pure austerity can not walk. The conflict that the market feared when Holland came to power might not be as insurmountable as we thought at first sight, "said John Davies
…. ….. "Solid as usual, decent rates. Where is the political risk? "Said Peter Chatwell, rates strategist at Credit Agricole CIB in London, about the French auction
.
The new futures contract on OAT, due in June, hit a high (126.75) since its launch on April 16 on Eurex, the market for die riveted to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
Around 12:30, he was earning 57 cents to 126.69 in a volume of more than 11,000 contracts. Open positions reached 43,223 against 58,000 batches on Italian BTP future, launched in 2009 by Eurex.
The Bund future, benchmark futures contracts in the euro zone fell by 14 cents to 141.59 in a volume of more than 202,000 contracts. Positions on maturity in June exceeded the 13 million lots.