Five-year paper auction sails through on aggressive bidding

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| The other stock "" 7.50 per cent 2034 for a notified amount of Rs 2,000 crore "" was picked by insurance majors and trusts and funds and got auctioned at a cut-off yield of 7.97 per cent. |
| According to bond dealers, the enthusiasm and aggressive bidding by banks and traders for grabbing the benchmark five-year paper resulted in a drop in the cut-off yield to 6.99 per cent as against a market expectation of 7.05/10 per cent. |
| "The paper was well bid and RBI hinted a relatively softer rate than expected," said a dealer. The RBI received 387 bids. It accepted 68 bids for the five-year stock. After the auction, the paper was traded at a premium and the yield came off to 6.92 per cent. |
| According to dealers, the government securities market might see a good trading interest on Wednesday. |
| According to market, this was the most well bid auction in the new financial year. The first paper 6.85 per cent 2012, though got fully subscribed, offered a very high cut-off yield after which the paper was sold at a discount in the market. The second paper 8.07 per cent 2017 was well bid but only primary dealers and few banks had participated in the auction. |
| In the current market situation, banks have been staying away from the market as they have government securities in excess of the stipulated 25 per cent of the statutory liquidity ratio. |
| Currently, banks maintain an average of 38 per cent of the SLR portfolio. Therefore, the RBI is proposing to come out with short-term securities which will help banks reduce the duration of their portfolio. |
| In the process it will bring down the risk which the increasing interest rate scenario poses on the investment portfolio of the banks, said a source. |
| CBLO volumes touch Rs 8326 cr |
| The collateralised borrowing and lending obligation (CBLO) market clocked a record volume of Rs 8,326 crore, beating its past highest volume of Rs 7,615 crore on March 30. |
| According to market dealers, funds are available cheap at 4.7/4.8 per cent in the CBLO market, while call rates have gone up to 5 per cent after the reverse repo rate hike in the recent credit policy. |
| Moreover, with gradual phasing out of non-banking lenders from the call market, non banking entities with surplus funds are flocking the CBLO market. |
First Published: May 04 2005 | 12:00 AM IST