 "Indian bond yields rise, rupee falls as Ukraine tensions escalate")
By Swati Bhat
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's benchmark 10-year bond yield rose further in afternoon trade on Tuesday, while the rupee weakened, due to global risk aversion amid an escalation of tensions in Ukraine, which also pushed up oil prices close to $100 a barrel.
India's benchmark 10-year bond yield closed at at 6.75%, up 6 basis points from its previous close.
"The jump in oil, auction and overall risk off is hurting markets. Sources saying government will borrow the cancelled auctions too. But when? There is just one month left," a senior trader at a private bank said.
Reuters earlier reported the government may conduct more debt auctions after its last scheduled tender for the fiscal year on Friday to take advantage of the relatively low cost of borrowing.
The government, after cancelling two auctions worth 240 billion rupees each, decided to raise 230 billion rupees via a sale on Friday, weighing on investor sentiment, with a large part of the market having assumed the borrowing for this year was behind them.
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In the new fiscal year starting April, the government is scheduled to borrow a record 14.31 trillion rupees and market participants are keenly waiting to see how much the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would be willing to support it and what measures it announces.
The RBI has over the last two years resorted to open market purchases of bonds and also buy/sell swaps in an attempt to ensure the borrowing programme goes through smoothly.
The partially convertible rupee closed at 74.8750 per dollar, weaker compared with its previous close of 74.5050.
Emerging market assets dropped after Russian President Vladimir Putin formally recognised two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, sending Russian stocks tumbling and the Ukrainian hryvnia to multi-year lows.
The uptick in global crude to near $100 a barrel will also impact India's import bill and widen the current account deficit apart from fuelling imported inflation in the country. [O/R]
(Reporting by Swati Bhat; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)