NSE to auction investment limits for Rs 9,300 cr govt bonds

The auction will be conducted on the NSE-ebid platform after the close of market trading

Leading bourse National Stock Exchange (NSE) will auction investment limits for overseas investors for purchase of government debt securities worth over Rs 9,300 crore on Monday.

The auction will be conducted on NSE-ebid platform during 1530-1730 hours, after the close of market trading.

The debt auction quota gives overseas investors right to invest in the debt, up to the limit purchased.

According to latest data available with depositories, total investment in government debt has reached Rs 1,38,667 crore till yesterday, which is 93.69 per cent of total permitted limit of Rs 1.48 lakh crore.

Consequently, the exchange has decided to conduct an auction for the allocation of unutilised debt limits to the tune of Rs 9,333 crore on Monday, October 17, 2016.

Besides, a mock bidding session would be conducted today in this regard.

In an online auction conducted last month, the government debt securities had attracted bids worth a staggering Rs 6,821 crore from foreign investors as against Rs 4,615 crore on offer.

To boost foreign flow, limit for overseas investors in central government securities has been increased from Rs 1.40 lakh crore to Rs 1.44 lakh crore from July 5.

Earlier, this limit was increased to Rs 1.40 lakh crore from April 4. Prior to that, the limit was Rs 1.35 lakh crore.

To boost inflows of foreign funds into Indian capital markets, regulator Sebi raised the FPI investment limit in government securities to Rs 1.48 lakh crore from October 3 onwards. This limit will be further increased to Rs 1.52 lakh crore from January 2, next year.