Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Bond Trading Tumbles in India as Banks Stare at $3 Billion Loss
By
Subhadip Sircar
March 9, 2018, 2:18 PM GMT+10
Benchmark 10-year yields rose for a seventh month in February
“We need demand levers in the market,” says Iyer of Kotak
Traders in India are having a hard time selling bonds.
That’s because state-run banks, the biggest holders of sovereign debt, are in no mood to buy after a seven-month carnage inflicted losses worth billions of rupees on their books. Such lack of participation has caused the average trading volume on the Reserve Bank of India’s platform to nearly halve to 280.4 billion rupees ($4.3 billion) since Jan. 1, from the same period last year.
“The return of state-owned banks is critical, specially for the next fiscal year’s borrowing program to go through,” said Lakshmi Iyer, chief investment officer for debt at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Co. in Mumbai, which oversees close to the equivalent of $19 billion. “We need demand levers in the market.”
