, Interfax-Ukraine reported yesterday. Earlier this year, the Cabinet of Ministers approved sovereign bond guarantees up to $740 million for the state highway agency. The organizers of the issue — J.P. Morgan, Dragon Capital, and Ukreximbank – started calling investors on Tuesday.

international investors increased their investment in Ukrainian government bonds by $377 million this month, prompting the central bank to buy $415 million. Despite the purchases, Ukraine’s currency strengthened yesterday to less than 27 to the dollar for the first time in almost a year.

ICU has reported. “Last week foreign investors purchased UAH 2bn [$74 million] of new bills in addition to reinvesting funds they received from redemptions,” the investment group wrote of last week’s auction. Taras Kotovych, Senior Financial Analyst for ICU has calculated that international investors recently bought UAH 3-4 billion, an inflow that strengthened the exchange rate. Yesterday, one dollar was fetching UAH 27.08.

— $358.6 million and 15.9 million hryvnia, or $580 million. Interest rates were virtually unchanged on the hryvnia bonds, ranging from 8.42% for 3-month bonds and 12.3% on 3-year bonds. For dollar bonds, rates did not change: 3.7% for 1-year bonds, and 3.9% for 2-year bonds. The Ministry posted results of the auctions on its website and on its Facebook page.

“The recent placements of new local bonds do practically nothing for financing government spending because of the growing load of local bond redemptions.”

the Ministry reported on its Facebook page. Yields in hryvnia reflect the Central Bank’s increase in the nation’s prime rate 10 days ago to 7.5%. The yields were: 6-month – 9%; 1-year – 11.2%; 1.5 year – 11.3%; 2-year – 11.96%; 3-year – 12.28%. In the foreign currency placements, the Ministry sold $21 million worth of 1-year dollar bonds at 3.7% and €42 million worth of 1-year euro bonds at 2.5%.

reported Bloomberg. The benchmark was 7-7.25%, but demand was almost three times supply, pushing down the final interest rate, reports Interfax.ru.