Bonds: Stronger than expected US data weigh on Gilts

These were the movements in some of the most widely-followed sovereign 10-year bond yields:

US: 1.76% (+5bp)

UK: 1.40% (+3bp)

Germany: 0.14% (+1bp)

Spain: 1.60% (-1bp)

France: 0.51% (+0bp)

Italy: 1.50% (-1bp)

Portugal: 3.34% (+1bp)

Greece: 10.57% (-8bp)

Japan: -0.07% (+0bp)

Gilts tracked losses on US Treasuries, following the release of much more solid than expected figures on US personal consumption and inflation in January.

The consumption figures were double market forecasts while at 1.7% year-on-year the latest reading on 'core' PCE inflation was at its highest since the end of 2012.

"Markets have ignored the steady increase in core CPI inflation over the past year, but they can't ignore this," chimed Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Losses in Gilts came despite consumer price data referencing the month of February, spanning from Germany to France and Spain, which undershot economists´ forecasts.

Data on the activity front was more mixed, with French fourth quarter 2015 gross domestic product figures revealing that the Eurozone´s second largest economy expanded at a 0.3% quarter-on-quarter pace in the final three months of 2015, a tenth of a percentage point more than analysts had been expecting.

However, the European Commission´s barometre of euro area economic sentiment deteriorated more than expected in February, falling to 103.8 from a revised 105.1 in January.

Risk appetite was also underpinned by expectations that the G20 meeting of finance ministers in China will deliver a coordinated stimulus programme to bolster the slowing global economy.