Argentina's defaulted benchmark bonds rose on Monday as optimism grew that the country would meet its proposed January 17 launch date to restructure more than $100bn of defaulted debt.

In early afternoon trading the global 2008 bond had climbed to 32.92 cents from its Friday close of 32.718 cents. The rise, which continued a week-long trend, followed news at the weekend that the government had re-hired Bank of New York as its global exchange agent in the debt-swap.