Slovenia raised 1.1 billion euros ($1.4 billion), over twice what was expected, at a treasury bill auction on Wednesday, despite speculation the eurozone country could be the next in line for bailout. The country sold the 18-month treasury bills at an average interest rate of 4.15 percent, 0.16 percentage points higher than at the last auction of 18-month bills in December 2011, the finance ministry said in a statement. The ministry had initially expected to raise only about 500 million euros to refinance a previous emission of treasury bills that will come due in June.

German automaker Daimler said Wednesday it pocketed 2.2 billion euros ($2.9 billion) from the sale of its remaining 7.5-percent stake in the European aerospace and defence group EADS. "Daimler received gross proceeds of about 2.2 billion euros from the offering and, following the offering, does not hold any residual shares in EADS," the group said in a statement. Shares in the group soared by more than 4.0 percent in morning trades on the Paris stock exchange. As announced the day before, Daimler put up 61.1 million EADS shares for sale at 37 euros apiece.

By Francesca Landini MILAN (Reuters) - Italy raised almost 9 billion euros (7.7 billion pounds) on the first sale day of a new bond aimed at individual investors and said it will close the offering two days ahead of schedule. The head of Italy's Debt Management Office, Maria Cannata, called the first day "a success", adding it will have a positive spillover effect on the rest of the Italian debt market.

The 17-nation eurozone posted a trade surplus of 10.4 billion euros ($13.6 bn) after recording a revised deficit of 4.7 billion euros in January, Eurostat said Monday. Seasonally adjusted exports rose by 0.1 percent in February from January while imports fell by 2.1 percent. For the full 27-member European Union, the trade balance came in at a 1.8 billion euro surplus, compared to a revised 16.8 billion euros in January. On a seasonally adjusted basis, exports slid by 0.1 percent from January while imports dropped by 2.3 percent.