India bond yields seen little changed; cenbank policy minutes in focus

23 Oct, 2024

MUMBAI: Indian government bond yields are expected to be largely unchanged in the early trading session on Wednesday, as market participants awaited the minutes of the local central bank’s latest meeting.

The benchmark 10-year bond yield is likely to move between 6.80% and 6.84%, compared with its previous close of 6.8220%, a trader with a private bank said.

“The market is in consolidation mode at around current levels and before taking any strong directional call, they would want to see the opinions of the new members of the monetary policy committee,” the trader said.

Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of India changed its monetary policy stance to neutral at its meeting, which saw three new external members being appointed to the decision-making committee.

Traders had anticipated that the move could have opened the door for rate cuts as early as December, but the latest comments from the RBI Governor have pushed back such bets.

Governor Shaktikanta Das last week said that it would be “very premature” and risky to lower interest rates at this stage and that the central bank is not “behind the curve” in terms of monetary policy and would base its decisions on incoming data and the outlook on inflation.

US Treasury yields hit a three-month high on Tuesday as hedging before the US Presidential elections on Nov. 5 dampened demand for the Treasuries.

India bond yields steady ahead of $4bn state debt sale

The 10-year U.S yield continued to remain elevated between the crucial 4.20% to 4.25% zone, as traders braced for a less aggressive path of interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

The Fed had slashed rates by a larger-than-usual 50 basis point in September, raising hopes of a similar action in November.

However, interest rate futures are now anticipating the Fed to cut rates by 25 bps next month, with aggregate cuts of 75 bps till March.

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