A sale of hundreds of millions of dollars of debt instruments from a collapsed structured investment vehicle is set to be held on Thursday in spite of the market turmoil, illustrating investor eagerness to dump toxic assets, even at low prices.

A decision to delay the auction could still be taken at the last minute, but the move to push ahead is on the back of expectations among those involved that the value of these mainly mortgage-backed debt instruments could fall further, according to people close to the situation.