As part of its strategy to ease the liquidity crunch, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today bought bonds worth Rs 8,790 crore under its open market operations (OMO) against a target of Rs 10,000 crore.
Four securities were offered today as part of OMO and three were subscribed, the central bank said in a statement.
While the government security (G-Sec) maturing 2021 with a coupon rate of 7.80% garnered Rs 4,936 crore, the 8.08% GS maturing on 2022 garnered Rs 3,383.99 crore.
Similarly, the RBI purchased 8.28% GS of Rs 470 crore maturing at 2027.
The central bank had already infused liquidity of Rs 24,311 crore in three tranches in the last one month. While it bought bonds worth Rs 9,435.48 crore under its open market operation on November 24, it infused Rs 5,782.95 crore on December 1 this year.
On December 8, it infused a further Rs 9,092.9 crore.
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OMOs are the "first preference" of RBI while injecting liquidity and there is an opportunity to raise up to Rs 2.74 lakh crore through the window.
RBI Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn had last month said that liquidity is likely to be under pressure for some more time amid factors like advance tax payment.
Overnight drawings by banks from RBI's liquidity adjustment facility have exceeded Rs 1,20,000 crore and the apex bank had said in the past that deficit has exceeded its targeted 1% of net demand and time liabilities (NDTL).