Spain sells €4.5bn worth treasury bills

The Spanish Treasury on Thursday auctioned 4.558 billion euros (6.322 billion U.S. dollars) in six-month and 12-month government bonds. Around 1.216 billion euros worth of six-month Treasury bills were issued with an average interest rate of 0.369 percent, compared to the 0.366 percent rate of the previous issue in March. The placement also included 3.341 billion euros worth of Treasury bills with 12-month lifespan that fetched an average interest rate of 0.556 percent, slightly above the 0.544 percent of the previous issue held last month. After the auction, the IBEX-35 stock market in Madrid stood at around 10,380 points, while Spain's risk premium was at 163 points and Spain's 10-year bond interest rate stood at 3.16 percent. The Spanish Treasury will hold two auctions more this month, on April 22 and 24 respectively. So far, Spain has placed 50.481 billion euros on the market which represented 37.9 percent of Spain's financial needs for 2014. (1 euro = 1.38 U.S. dollars)