Europe watches massive Greek bond issue

Greek bonds have lost investors 2.8% so far this year, according to Bloomberg/EFFAS indexes, compared with a 1.36% gain for German securities. However David Schnautz, a fixed-income strategist at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, voiced optimism in a note today that "Greece should be able to prove that it can still obtain funding in the capital market. "We are sticking with our strategic recommendation to position for an outperformance of Greek bonds and other peripheral government bonds." The bond issuance is taking place as a bail-out package worth an estimated €25bn is being hammered...