Irish, Portuguese yield spreads hit new highs

LONDON Nov 10 (Reuters) - The premium investors demand to hold 10-year Irish and Portuguese bonds over German benchmarks rose to record highs on Wednesday after a repo clearing house raised the cost of funding secured against Irish debt.

The 10-year Irish/German government bond yield spread breached 600 basis points to hit 606 bps after the move by European clearing house LCH.Clearnet piled pressure on Irish bonds and banks.

The equivalent Portuguese spread widened by 17 bps on the day to 468 bps after Lisbon was forced earlier to pay its highest yield at a bond sale since joining the single currency due to concerns about peripheral euro zone sovereign debt.

(Reporting by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Carmel Crimmins in Dublin)