Bond yields were treading water on Friday ahead of the sale of Rs 14,000 crore bonds auction later in the session. The yields could slip going further in the session tracking lower oil prices, which is expected to help ease inflation, which would prompt the central bank to cut rates in 2015.
On the global front, financial markets were shut on Wednesday. Meanwhile, U.S. crude futures hit $55.11 a barrel before easing to around $54.25 a barrel on the first trading day of 2015 in Asia, supported by a larger-than-expected fall in U.S. crude stocks, though China's lacklustre economic data capped gains.
Back home, the yields on new 10 year Government Stock 2023 was trading steady at Thursday’s close of 7.88%.
The benchmark five-year interest rate swaps were trading 1 basis point higher at 7.23% from its previous close of 7.22% on Thursday.
The Reserve Bank of India will conduct 5 day reverse repo variable rate auction for a notified amount of Rs 20,000 crore (January 2, 2015, Friday). The auction will be conducted between 4.00pm and 4.30pm as per the revised guidelines on Term Repo Auctions issued on February 13, 2014.