A day before the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announces its mid-quarter review of monetary policy, banks have borrowed Rs 1,33,205 crore from the former.
“This is mainly due to the advance tax payments as the liquidity shortfall for the system is expected to be Rs 1.2-1.3 lakh crore,” said Moses Hardings, head-global markets group, IndusInd Bank.
The drawdown from the repo window under RBI’s liquidity adjustment facility was above Rs 90,000 crore on Monday. It touched Rs 1.17 lakh crore on Tuesday.
“It seems the advance tax payments are better than what the market was expecting,” said Ajay Manglunia, senior vice-president, Edelweiss Securities. Expectations were around Rs 45,000 crore, he added.
Reflecting a high demand from banks, call rates also ended high. The call money rate closed at 7.25 per cent, higher than Tuesday’s close of 7.05 per cent, according to the Clearing Corporation of India. At Rs 19,043 crore, the volumes in call money market also rose as compared to Rs 18,024 crore a day before.
“Liquidity will remain tight till money comes back into the system in the form of government spending,” said N Eswaran, general manager, Indian Bank.
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In this situation, banks having securities in excess of the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) requirement were gaining from the arbitrage opportunity by borrowing from RBI and investing in mutual funds, he added. “Banks are able to earn 1.5 to 2 per cent in arbitrage,” he said.
Market participants are of the view that RBI will raise both the policy rates by 25 basis points each to curtail the rising inflation and inflationary expectations.
As of now, the repo rate and reverse repo rates stand at 6.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent, respectively.