The Eurosystem registered an increase in the pace of CBPP3 purchases last week, with gross purchases amounting to some Eu1.06bn as secondary market buying hitting its highest level in over two months, while no eligible issuance settled.

ECB figures published on Monday show the CBPP3 portfolio grew Eu960m, from Eu236.456bn to Eu237.416bn, in the week to last Friday. Portfolio redemption figures published yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon show that around Eu100m of CBPP3 holdings matured last week, implying that gross purchases totalled around Eu1.06bn.

This is up from gross purchases of around Eu889m in the previous week, and closer to the 2017 average of Eu1.12bn.

No CBPP3-eligible supply settled last week, meaning that secondary market purchases averaged around Eu212m per day.

Analysts noted this is well above the average of some Eu150m the Eurosystem has bought per day on the secondary market since the end of the summer break and is the highest since the week commencing 4 September.

“This could reflect some frontloading in the run up to year-end, as well as the fact that there were no purchases in the primary market last week,” said Joost Beaumont, senior fixed income strategist at ABN Amro.