Indian bond yields seen flattish after rising in previous session

03 Apr, 2024

MUMBAI: Indian government bond yields are expected to be little changed in early trade on Wednesday, after rising sharply in the previous session tracking Treasury yields.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year is likely to trade in a 7.09%-7.13% range, following its close of 7.1160% on Tuesday, which was the highest in more than two months, a trader with a private bank said.

“The spike in Treasury yields hurt and we saw some late-session selloff yesterday, but today we may see some consolidation as the current levels for the benchmark are attractive to build fresh positions,” the trader said.

US bond yields continued their upward momentum, as a recent run of solid economic data has led to concerns on whether the Federal Reserve will be able to start easing rates from June.

Investors are also unsure about the magnitude of rate cuts in 2024.

The 10-year US yield rose above 4.40% mark for the first time in four months on Tuesday, and was around 4.35% in Asian trading hours.

Indian bond market sentiment has been impacted as the central bank is moving to multiple price-based auctions after nearly three years.

The government will raise 380 billion rupees ($4.56 billion) via an auction on Friday to kickstart its borrowing programme for this financial year that started April 1.

Indian bond yields lifted by Treasury yields

This includes 200 billion rupees of a new 10-year bond. New Delhi aims to borrow 7.50 trillion rupees through bond sales during April-September, 53% of its annual borrowing target.

Traders await the monetary policy decision from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), due on Friday, where the authority is expected to leave interest rates unchanged.

Indian growth is holding up pretty strong but core inflation at multi-year lows gives RBI room to cut rates later this year, Puneet Pal, head of fixed income at PGIM India Mutual Fund, said.

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