India 10-year bond yield near five-month low on RBI rate cut hopes

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's benchmark 10-year bond yield slumped to a near five-month low on Tuesday after retail inflation for February eased, leading to expectation the Reserve Bank of India may cut key rates at its monetary policy review on April 5.

The central bank's plan to buy bonds worth up to 150 billion rupees ($2.23 billion) through an open market operation (OMO) on Thursday, aided gains, traders said.

At 0343 GMT, the benchmark 10-year bond yield was down 3 basis points at 7.57 percent, after earlier falling as much as 4 basis points to 7.56 percent, the lowest since Oct. 19.

India's headline retail inflation, which the RBI closely tracks to set its interest rate policy, eased to 5.18 percent in February from a year earlier, data showed on Monday. ($1 = 67.2200 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Neha Dasgupta; Editing by Anand Basu)