“We have made very small investments in Spain since we focus on the Central and Eastern European region. The amount of investments in Spain is proportional to its share in the global stock index basket, which is much less than 1 percent,” Vitalijus Šostakas, director of funds management department at the investment management company Finasta Asset Management, told the daily.
Pension funds were also unwilling to invest in Spanish sovereign bonds as their yield did not match the risks involved, he added.
“Previously we purchased bonds using the general eurozone index but later we replaced it with the investment grade debt securities index so as to eliminate investments in Portuguese, Greek, or Irish bonds,” Vaidas Paukštys, investment manager at Swedbank Investicijų Valdymas (Swedbank Investment Management), told the daily.
Eurozone sovereign bonds have recently lost much of their appeal both due to the problems in Southern European countries and due to the fact that the yields on ‘safe haven’ eurozone sovereign bonds are very low.