Indian corporate bond yields ended flat on Friday in the absence of any major trigger, with traders looking out for rate cues before the Reserve Bank of India reviews policy in March. The five-year benchmark corporate bond yield ended steady at 9.33 percent, while the 10-year yield also closed unchanged at 9.23 percent. Expectations that the Reserve Bank of India may cut interest rates in March rather than in April have picked up following a soft inflation number for January.
India's headline inflation slowed to its lowest level in more than two years in January as food prices fell, sparking hopes that the central bank will start cutting interest rates sooner rather than later to battle the country's economic slowdown. Total volume in the corporate bond market was 17.07 billion rupees ($346.2 million), sharply down from Wednesday's 27.42 billion rupees.