Liquidity: Remains tight
The liquidity remained tight since the RBI had to infuse around Rs 15,570 crore into the system. This is on account of need for funds to meet advance tax outflows on Friday and the government securities auction. |
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| Call rates reached a high of 8 per cent before closing for the day at 7.36 per cent. Buy-sell swaps also took place wherein banks sold dollars to meet the rupee requirement. |
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| The outlook on liquidity remains consistently bearish since there are no major source of liquidity expected in future. The Fed rate cut by 25 basis point failed to enthuse the market since it was expecting 50 basis point cut. This in turn reduced the expectation of the foreign exchange inflows into the market. |
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G-sec: Heavy sell-off
The government securities market witnessed heavy selling of government bonds by the foreign banks who were frantically raising rupee resources anticipating greater crunch ahead, said a dealer. While the selling of the bonds was mostly in the medium term, the long end of the maturity remained flat. |
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| Yields went up by 3-4 basis point in the shorter end of the curve following the bearish outlook on liquidity. However the liquidity did not impact the yields on the long term bonds and the ten year benchmark closed at 7.88 per cent . |
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| The RBI will be auctioning two dated security - 7.99 per cent 2017 and 8.33 per cent 2036 on Friday. The market expects the cut off yield for the two papers top figure around 7.88/7.89 for the ten year paper and 8.25 for the longer term paper - 8.33 per cent 2036. |
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OIS and corporate bonds: Bearish mood
Bearish outlook on liquidity pushed up the yields in the overnight interest rate swap market across maturities. While there were no major deals in the three month segment, banks struck OIS for six month maturity and onwards. |
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| Banks paid in fixed and received floating rate of interest to cover the interest rate risk in their portfolio. While the interest rate moved up from 7.25 per cent to 7.32 per cent in the one year maturity, the two year segment witnessed yields firming up from 7.02 pr cent to 7.10 per cent. |
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| Similarly, the yields went up for the rest of maturities till five year by 5 -6 basis points. One basis point ( bp) is one hundredth of a per centage point. Overnight interest rate swap market is derivative product based on the underlying of the interest rate on the government securities. |
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| The yield curve in the corporate bonds is flat wherein bonds of ten maturity are being traded for 9.35 per cent and one year bonds are trading at 9.25 per cent. |
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| The tightness in rupee liquidity [pushed up the rates in the shorter end where one year funds are available at 9.25/9.30 per cent as against below 8 per cent earlier. IDBI bank was scouting for quotes to issue 1- year bonds which was only available at 9.25 per cent. |
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| In the long term segment, Uco bank came out with upper tier II issue to raise Rs 400 crore . However it could mop up the funds at a higher rate at 9.57 per cent due to its downgrade to AA- category, said a dealer. On the other hand, State bank of Patiala raised funds through upper tier Ii issue at 9.30 per cent. |
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Rupee: Ends flat
The spot rupee market remained weak during the day. Tracking the equity market, it opened weaker at 39.41/42 as against a closing of 39.37 to a dollar on Wednesday. There were swaps done by foreign banks to convert dollars into rupees to tide over the liquidity crisis ahead of the advance tax outflows. |
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 This pushed up the spot rupee to close at 39.37/38 after reaching an intraday high of 39.35 to a dollar.
In the buy- sell swaps, the banks sell dollars in the spot market to buy it back at a later date in the future. In the interim, they avail the rupee funds. |
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| This pushed up the rupee premia to be paid for booking forward dollars. The annualised premia for six month and one year forward dollars closed at 1.98 per cent and 1.46 per cent respectively as against 1.81 per cent and 1.34 per cent on Wednesday. |
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Global markets: Yen ranged
While the pound and the euro ruled rangebound at $2.0434 ( $2.0430) and $1.4671 ($1.4686), the yen appreciated to $ 111.74 ($111.18). |
