Ireland's NTMA taps....>

IRELAND BOND AUCTION PREVIEW: Ireland's NTMA taps E1.0bln of Irish 0% Oct-22 and

Irish 0.9% May-28 on Thursday. 

- BACKGROUND: Ireland is already 33% of the way through their 2018 funding plans

in the 9th week of the year and after today, this percentage will be 41%. 

- RV/HISTORY: Generally, there is very little to commend sub-5Y Irish paper

relative to other sovereigns. The swap spreads of all 0Y-5Y

Austrian/Belgian/Finnish/French and Irish bonds lie within a tight -30bp to

-43bp. Daylight in swap spreads between the first 4 countries and Irish debt

only develops above 5Y. However, the small Irish Oct-22 is an exception as an

auction concession has pushed its swap spread to -27bp. With a strong economy

and declining debt-GDP, it is only the Brexit risks and illiquidity that might

dissuade Irish investment in the 10Y sector. Outright 10Y Irish yield is 1.059%

and lowest since Jan 26. The 10Y spread to Germany is unremarkable at 40.5bp.

Across all maturities, Irish auction bid-cover ratios have average 1.9 times

over the past 6 outings.

- RESULTS: The auction closes at 1000BST with results around 15 minutes later.