Halister News

(Bloomberg) -- Government plans to sell 660b rupees ($9.7b) of debt during rest of this FY, RBI says in statement late Monday; that compares with earlier plan to borrow 840b rupees in the period.

• Amount of 660b rupees to be borrowed via six weekly auctions of 110b rupees each, with last sale for this FY in week of Feb. 6-10: statement; auction size was 140b rupees in previous plan
• Revision comes after “reviewing the cash position” of central government: RBI statement
• “This is clearly a surprise to the market and will support government bonds,” says Nagaraj Kulkarni, senior rates strategist at Standard Chartered in Singapore. “There seems to be a positive surprise on the govt’s revenue side”
• Borrowing in 10-14 year segment cut to 50b-60b rupees per week from 70b-80b rupees; bond sales for 15-19 year bucket cut to 10b-20b rupees versus 20b-30b earlier
• Reduction is larger in the 10-14 year segment as most issuance was in that segment: Kulkarni
• Forecasts 10-year yield at 6.20% by end-March; last 6.41%