CBPP3 buying ticked over last week, with gross purchases of some EUR710m close to the previous week’s total, as the Eurosystem maintained its reduced 10% order size for new issues and remained active in the secondary market.

Settled and outstanding purchases in the CBPP3 portfolio rose a net EUR510m last week, from EUR259.771bn to EUR260.281bn as of last Friday. The ECB reported redemptions of around EUR200m last week, implying gross purchases of EUR710m, a little higher than around EUR701m the previous week.

The only Eurozone benchmarks to settle in the relevant period were EUR1bn five and EUR500m 15 year parts of a dual-tranche ING-DiBa deal, and analysts estimated the Eurosystem bought close to an aggregate EUR100m, or 6%-7% of the issuance.

This would imply daily average secondary market buying of EUR122m, compared with an estimated EUR112m per day the previous week (although that week included a German public holiday). No eligible new issues settle in this week’s period, meaning that the next reported increase will reflect only secondary purchases.