There was strong activity in core markets today (Thursday) as UBS hit screens with a Eu1bn five year covered bond at 30bp over mid-swaps and Nordea Bank Finland launched a Eu2bn three year at 19bp over, after Caisse de Refinancement de l’Habitat priced a Eu1.25bn 10 year yesterday afternoon.

“The good news is that activity in the primary market is definitely back,” said a syndicate official away from the leads. “Everything that stemming from core jurisdictions is doing well.

“We’re seeing nicely oversubscribed deals, which show that investors are supporting issuers from core regions.”

UBS joint bookrunners Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Natixis, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS and UniCredit went out with an initial guidance of 32bp over mid-swaps and tightened pricing to 30bp over. Books were closed at 1015 CET with orders exceeding Eu2.5bn.

A syndicate official from one of the leads said the deal went very well.

“We paid a very limited new issue premium,” he added.

A banker away from the leads suggested pricing was “bang-on”.

“This highlights the amount of cash out there and the shortage of high quality issues,” he said. “In this volatile environment investors want to park their money in safe environments.”

Another syndicate official away from the leads said that the deal’s rarity value helped.

“You would expect UBS to be a very good trade,” he said. “You only see them one or two times a year.”

Nordea Bank Finland was well received, with leads Goldman Sachs, Nordea, Société Générale and UniCredit building an order book of more than Eu3bn and 125 orders. The final spread was fixed at 19bp over mid-swaps, from an initial 20bp over mid-swaps area, and the size at Eu2bn.

“Nordea is definitely one of the strongest issuers,” said a banker away from the leads. “It had its debut last year when it did a November 2015.”

Its second issue came on 3 February as a Eu1bn 10 year.

CRH priced its Eu1.25bn 10 year at 63bp over mid-swaps after leads Barclays Capital, Crédit Agricole, HSBC, Natixis and SG took more than Eu2.5bn of orders. Books had been opened with guidance of the 65bp area and were closed after just half an hour.

“CRH’s borrowing need was not so high and that is the reason the size was limited and we closed the books quickly,” Henry Raymond, chairman of and chief executive officer of CRH, told The Covered Bond Report. “That was a pity, perhaps, because it probably would have been possible to issue a lot more.

“It appeared to us that there was a strong demand for a very good name,” he added, “probably because of the clouds over the market.

Some market participants had been concerned that lower yields in 10 years could stymie demand for long dated paper, but the issue offered a 4% coupon and showed investors to be open to such supply from CRH.

“We were pleased with the issue,” said Raymond, “because we prefer to issue at the long end. We ask for a lot of commitment and soundness from the banks participating in CRH and it is normal that we want to pay them back with good funding.”

Bankers even said that conditions had improved for peripherals today, after a tough few days.

Spanish spreads rallied roughly 10bp, according to a syndicate official, who said he would not be surprised if Spanish issuers were monitoring the market.

“There’s a lot more execution risk for the peripherals,” he said, “but I think if one of the national champions out of these regions did a deal – even out of Spain – it would go very well.”

Aktia has mandated Crédit Agricole, J.P. Morgan, Nykredit and UniCredit for a roadshow from 6-10 June.