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In the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s open market operation (OMO) sale of government bonds held on Tuesday, the central bank sold majority of shorter-maturity bonds and rejected bids for longer-tenure bonds as a result of which liquidity was sucked out to the tune of Rs 8,270 crore as against the notified Rs 10,000 crore.
"RBI did not accept the bids for the longer-tenure bonds as the bids may have been probably at a higher level which RBI was not comfortable with," said a debt fund manager with an insurance company.
Of the four bonds which were a part of the OMO sale, RBI accepted bids for two bonds namely the 7.83 per cent bond maturing in 2018 and 8.08 per cent bond maturing in 2022. Bids for the remaining two bonds namely the 8.15 per cent bond maturing in 2026 and the 7.40 per cent bond maturing in 2035 were not accepted.
Meanwhile, the yield on the 10-year benchmark bond fell by four basis points on Tuesday to end at eight per cent. The yield on the new 10-year bond fell four basis points, the biggest drop since July 6, to 7.82 per cent.
Bond yields fell on Tuesday as a drop in oil prices eased concerns on the inflation front. The Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation rose to a nine-month high of 5.4 per cent in June, on the back of increased rate of price rise in food items, data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed on Monday.
