Explore Business Standard
Don’t miss the latest developments in business and finance.
The borrowing cost of states continued to remain low for the second week with the latest auction on Tuesday seeing average yield staying almost flat at 7.68 per cent. Many states stayed away from the market following disbursal of the tax devolution amount by the Centre earlier this month. The weighted average yield/cut-off of State Government Securities (SGS) inched up by 1 basis point to 7.68 per cent at the auction on Tuesday compared to the past week despite a sharp increase in the weighted average tenor to 17 years from 12 years, Icra chief economist Aditi Nayar said in a note. Normally bond prices change according to the tenor of the issue, and the 10-year bonds are considered the benchmark when it comes to pricing and also from a demand perspective. At Tuesday's auction, the states issued bonds of varying tenor, peaking at 25 years (Tamil Nadu issued 25-year paper at 7.63 per cent) pushing up the median average tenor sharply to 17 years from 12 years last week. However, the
The Reserve Bank on Monday said it will conduct an open market purchase of government securities aggregating to Rs 15,000 crore under the G-sec Acquisition Programme (G-SAP 2.0) on September 23. On a review of current liquidity conditions, the central bank also decided to conduct a simultaneous sale of government securities under open market operations (OMO) for an aggregate amount of Rs 15,000 crore on the same day. In a statement, the RBI said it will purchase three government securities of different maturity dates amounting to Rs 15,000 crore. It will also sell three government securities amounting to Rs 15,000 on September 23. The central bank further said it reserves the right to decide on the quantum of purchase and sale of individual securities. The result of the auctions will be announced on the same day.