By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
LONDON, England - May 17, 2010 - The Bank of New York Mellon said its custodial data showed a "sharp acceleration" of net sales of debt from the two countries after the European Central Bank (ECB) began purchasing €16.5 billion of bonds from southern Europe and Ireland in bid to halt market panic. "It rather suggests that investors leapt at the opportunity to clear their balance sheets of intolerable risk," said Neil Mellor, the bank’s currency strategist. "This leaves the ECB itself in an unpleasant situation since it now faces a deterioration in its own balance sheet."