MUMBAI: Indian federal bonds yields treaded water on Monday with many traders on the sidelines awaiting the government's borrowing schedule for the second half of the fiscal year.
Government and central bank officials will meet on Thursday to finalise the borrowing plan for the six months beginning October, a finance ministry source with knowledge of the matter said on Monday.
The meeting was earlier set for Oct. 3.
The source also said the government's stance remained to keep borrowings at the budgeted level.
New Delhi, which set a gross borrowing target of 4.17 trillion rupees ($84.2 billion) for 2011/12, has completed 2.5 trillion rupees between April and September.
At 11:10 a.m. (0540 GMT), the 10-year benchmark bond yield was at 8.29 percent, down 1 basis point from Friday's close.
Total volumes on the central bank's electronic trading platform were light at 26.70 billion rupees, compared with 35 billion to 45 billion in the first two hours of trade.
"The government borrowing schedule is to be announced soon so the bonds are tied in a range in a lacklustre trade," a senior bond dealer at a foreign bank said.
"The market is in a slightly risk-off mode. The euro is lower. Domestic factors like the nil borrowing under ways and means advances (WMA) by the government are helping sentiment," said Debendra Dash, senior treasury manager at Development Credit Bank.
The government usually borrows from the central bank under WMA when it does not have enough funds with itself. As there was no borrowing under this facility, according to the latest data,
market concern has eased the government may need to sell more bonds or cash management bills.
The benchmark five-year swap rate was at 6.74 percent, down 2 basis points from Friday's close, while the one-year rate dropped 8 basis points to 7.70 percent.
The euro dropped sharply on Monday, moving towards an eight-month low hit last week, as riskier assets were hammered across the board with markets waiting for more details on fresh efforts from European officials to tackle the debt crisis there.
US Treasuries prices fell on Friday, after a huge rally in the week, as stabilization in stocks and talk of steps to relieve the euro zone debt crisis dampened demand for safe-haven US government debt.
In Asian trade, however, the 10-year US benchmark bond yield was at 1.82 percent, down 2 bps from late New York trade on Friday , when it had risen sharply from 1.73 percent.
Brent crude fell further below $104 on Monday, paring earlier gains to stand at a near 7-week low, on concerns that euro zone policymakers were doing too little to stem a debt crisis that helped wipe as much as 9 percent off oil prices last week.
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