ECB Assets Hit 35% Of Eurozone GDP; Draghi Owns 9.2% Of European Corporate Bond Market
According to the latest weekly breakdown of what the six central banks acting on behalf of the Euro system bought in the week ending December 16, the ECB purchased at least 6 corporate bonds under its CSPP program. The latest weekly purchase lifts the number of securities held to 773; this means that the ECB now holds 9.2%, (€50.6bn) of the entire European corporate market (€549.34bn outstanding).
The ECB bought bonds issued by AB InBev, Autostrade Per L’Italia, Knorr-Bremse, Snam and Uniper. 104 (~13.5%) of the 773 securities are negative yielding. Utilities remain the largest industry group with 207 securities.
For the week ending 16th December, the bond purchases stood at €0.7bn across sectors (vs. €1.6bn the week prior). The complete list of ISINs can be found here, courtesy of UBS. Last week, total EUR issuances worth €6.2bn were issued in the primary market, of which €0.23bn were CSPP eligible. For the month ending November, total CSPP holdings stood at €47.2bn, with 86% of the purchased amount coming from the secondary market.
What bonds has ECB bought into?
Looking at the break-up country wise, French and German issuers continue to dominate the ISIN count (395 issuances worth €294bn in amount outstanding). Bonds from non-Eurozone corporates were also on the list, with the bulk from Switzerland (24 issuances worth €17bn). When looking at the purchases by sector, Utilities remains the top pick (206 issuances worth €137bn), while non-cyclical consumer is a distant second (120 issuances, €93bn in amount outstanding).
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