Halister News

(Bloomberg) -- Canada’s merchandise trade balance seen at -C$0.02b in April vs -C$0.14b in March (forecast range -C$0.5b to +C$0.5b).

(Bloomberg) -- Benchmark sovereign bonds complete a third straight week of gains on optimism the central bank will tone down its hawkish rhetoric at next week’s policy meeting after inflation eased to a record and economic growth slowed.

• Yield on the newly-issued 6.79% bonds due May 2027 falls 2bps from May 26 to 6.62%; little changed Friday
• READ: Bond bulls say cheers again as RBI seen abandoning hawkish tone
• Upside risks to medium-term inflation have subsided, Standard Chartered analysts, led by Nagaraj Kulkarni, wrote in a note
  • StanChart revises 3-month bond outlook to positive from neutral on inflation dynamics, rate-cut expectations
  • Recommends buying six- year bonds; sees yield on new 10-year bond at 6.60% by end- September versus earlier forecast of 7.20%
  • Believes the MPC will not only scale back its hawkishness (at the June policy meeting), but also lower policy rates by 25bps in August
• NOTE: Central bank meets June 6 and 7
• USD/INR falls 0.1% on Friday to 64.4425; little changed for week
• India sells 150b rupees of bonds as planned: RBI 
• Overseas holdings of rupee-denominated govt and corporate bonds rose by 7.5b rupees on Thursday, increasing for a sixth day: NSDL data

To contact the reporter on this story: Kartik Goyal in Mumbai at kgoyal@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tan Hwee Ann at hatan@bloomberg.net Candice Zachariahs