Portugal recovery attracts investors

Portugal’s government bonds advanced, with 10-year yields dropping below 5% for the first time since August 2010, as a recovery in the region’s most indebted economies attracted investors.

The nation’s February 2024 securities rose for an eighth day, improving the prospect it will regain full market access as the end of its €78bn rescue programme from the European Union and International Monetary Fund approaches. Ireland’s bonds rallied for a fifth day after Moody’s Investors Service raised its credit rating on the nation to investment grade last week. Spanish and Italian bonds declined.

“The ratings have held up and the country is now self- financing,” Steven Major, head of global fixed-income research at HSBC Holdings Plc in London, said on Bloomberg Television’s “The Pulse” in an interview with Anna Edwards. “There’s a hunt for yield and once the Irish bonds are too expensive, money then goes into Portugal. There’s this virtuous circle.”