RBI buys bonds worth ₹40,000 cr in week to feb 21

The Reserve Bank of India purchased bonds worth ₹40,000 crore in screen based open market operations (OMO) purchases to infuse liquidity into the banking system in the week ended February 21.

This takes the cumulative bond purchases via screen to ₹80,000 crore in February, over and above the bonds purchased in auctions on February 13 and February 20 for ₹40,000 crore each. The RBI had done ₹59,000 crore of screen based OMO purchases in January as well.

Market participants expect more such liquidity infusion operations by the RBI via OMOs, variable rate repo auctions or foreign exchange swaps to address the deep deficit in system liquidity, traders said.