Italian borrowing costs rise at auction

The Italian Treasury held the first post-downgrade debt auction on Wednesday during which it managed to sell 6.993 worth of bonds out of the targeted 7.25 billion.

3.323 billion euros of December 2015 BTP were sold at an average yield of 2.48%, compared with 2.30% seen at a similar auction last month. 1.028 billion euros of bonds maturing in 2017 were sold at an average yields of 2.95%, up from the previous 2.55%. 642 million euros of papers maturing in 2018 were sold at an average yield of 3.03% and 2 billion euros of 2028 BTP yielded 4.9%.