By William L. Watts
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- The Belgian government sold just more than 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion) of bonds Monday, hitting the top of its planned range, in its first test of the market since suffering a downgrade by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services at the end of last week. The Belgian Debt Agency said it sold 450 million euros of 10-year bonds at a weighted average yield of 5.66%. Bids exceeded supply 2.6 times. A sale of 165 milion euros of bonds set to mature in 2018 produced a yield of 5.46% and produced a bid-to-cover ratio of 5.89. Belgium paid a yield of 5.77% to sell 530 million euros of a 2035 bond, producing a bid-to-cover ratio of 1.58, while a sale of 860 million euros of a 30-year bond produced a 5.78% yiled and a bid-to-cover ratio of 1.44. The agency had planned to sell between 1.5 billion and 2 billion euros of total supply. The yield on 10-year Belgian government bonds fell 9 basis points in the secondary market to 5.69%, according to FactSet Research data.
