The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed relaxation of price band limits of government securities that were traded on Monday. Following this the Fixed-Income Markets and Derivatives Association (FIMMDA) revised the price band thereby preventing reversal of Rs 5,000 crore worth of deals struck on the first trading day of the year.
A rally in bond prices on hopes that RBI may opt for rate cuts sooner than expected had led to breach of the price band. According to the code of conduct on RBI’s Negotiated Dealing System-Order Matching (NDS-OM) platform, the permitted price range of bids and offers for a liquid security is within 1 per cent of its previous close. For an illiquid security the limit is at 1.25 per cent of its previous close. This was introduced in October 2011 in order to prevent any “big figure” mistakes.
“This was the first instance of large volume trades breaching the limits since the price band was introduced,” said N S Venkatesh, head of treasury, IDBI Bank. RBI had ordered reversal of such trades that ended above the permissible limits on Monday. However, market participants met up with the regulator today to seek relaxation on the same.
Yields on the 10-year benchmark government bond fell 18 basis points on Monday despite last week’s announcement of higher government borrowing. “Markets had factored in the possibility of increase in government borrowing plan last week but hopes of early rate cuts and more bond purchases by RBI resulted into a rally,” said a bond dealer with a public sector bank.
Yields on 8.79 per cent government security maturing in 2021 closed at 8.38 per cent or Rs 102.65 on Monday compared with the close of 8.56 per cent or Rs 101.49 on Friday.
FIMMDA on Tuesday said revised the price band to 1.3 per cent for the 8.79 per cent government bond maturing in 2021, 1.45 per cent for 9.15 per cent government bond maturing in 2024 and 1.4 per cent for 8.28 per cent maturing in 2027. The revision is applicable for deals struck on Monday only.
