Eurozone bond yields rising on selloff

Bond yields of the strongest eurozone countries rose sharply Monday as a selloff of the securities by investors gathered force, investors said.

"We have passed from a situation where everyone wanted to buy bonds to a situation typical of a selloff where most investors want to sell at the same time," said Cyril Regnat, a bond analyst at Natixis investment bank.

"Nobody knows how long this somewhat excessive shift is going to last," he added.

Eurozone sovereign bond yields have plummeted in recent weeks to record lows as the European Central Bank unleashed its 1.1 trillion euro stimulus programme, which consists mostly of buying government bonds.

But that changed last week, as questions were again raised whether the ECB will follow through with the programme as inflation expectations are rising and the US Federal Reserve appeared to be increasingly uncertain about raising interest rates in the coming months as the US economy hit a soft patch in the first quarter.

The yield on German benchmark 10-year bonds rose to 0.453 percent on secondary market trading Monday at 1600 GMT from 0.366 percent on Thursday.

On April 15, the yield on the bund stood at 0.107 percent.

The yield on French 10-year bonds rose to 0.726 percent against 0.640 percent on Thursday.

On April 15 they stood at 0.353 percent.

Yields on bonds of southern eurozone nations also rose on Monday, with the 10-year Spanish bond up to 1.504 percent from 1.468 percent, and Italy's climbing to 1.533 percent from 1.499 percent.

Trading was closed in London for a public holiday.