| The European ABS market opened the New Year in the same fashion as it closed out the old – on a quietly positive note. As per much of last year, the core/periphery split persisted with spreads on the former continuing to grind tighter. Some securities from peripheral countries also saw improvements in pricing, Banco BPI recently provided a major boost by coming out with a tender offer on their three Duoro (Portuguese RMBS) transactions, close to ten points above secondary market levels. This also helped push some of the other Portuguese RMBS transactions higher. This enthusiasm was however short lived as the ongoing sovereign debt saga once again took centre stage, with most investors happy to sit on the sidelines. |
