India’s sovereign bond market is on tenterhooks again.
Just days after announcing measures to lower yields, the central bank has given signals that traders interpret as a lack of interest from authorities in pushing rates down further.
The yield on the 5-year bond has climbed 18 basis points in the last two trading sessions while the rate on 10-year bonds is up 10 basis points, retracing much of the earlier fall. The quick turn in sentiment shows a tug-of-war between the hopes of the bond market and the central bank’s approach to absorbing a record supply of debt from the government.
Late in August, the Reserve Bank of India had announced steps to cool yields, including allowing banks to hold more debt without having to mark losses, fresh rounds of Federal Reserve-styled Operation Twists and liquidity injections. However, in a change of tone, at Thursday’s Operation Twist, the central bank accepted only 71.3 billion rupees ($970 million) of bonds out of a possible 100 billion rupees, and on Friday, it again surprised markets by buying bonds at higher-than-expected yields.
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