Carmignac lengthens maturity of euro peripheral bonds on ECB boost

LONDON, March 13 (Reuters) - French fund firm Carmignac Gestion has lengthened the maturity of its holdings of Portuguese, Italian and Spanish sovereign bonds, expecting spreads to tighten further thanks to the European Central Bank's asset purchase programme.

"We are expecting sovereign yields to continue converging in the eurozone at a time when the amount of sovereign debt bought by the ECB will probably equate to 2.5 times the net issuance of the monetary union's member states," Didier Saint-Georges, a member of Carmignac's investment committee said in a letter to investors.

"We have therefore increased the maturity of our positions in southern European countries' debt, focussing on Portugal, Italy and Spain."

The ECB programme, which began on Monday with the ECB buying government debt of euro zone countries, will add over a trillion euros to an economy that has struggled with rapidly falling inflation.

Saint-Georges added Carmignac also opened positions in cement maker Holcim (Other OTC: HCMLF - news) -Lafarge (Paris: FR0000120537 - news) and some gold miners. (Reporting By Francesco Canepa, editing by Nigel Stephenson)