States borrowing cost begins to ease; falls 7 bps

Lower supplies for the second consecutive week finally led to the coupons on state debt to fall from the two-year high at the latest auction held on Tuesday, and the weighted average cut-off eased by 7 bps to 7.65 per cent. For the past two weeks, despite poor supplies states were forced to offer very high returns, which had touched 7.72 per cent last week, the highest in the past two years.

Nine states raised Rs 19,200 crore by selling state government securities on Tuesday, 32 per cent lower than the amount indicated for this week in the auction calendar.

Following this and the dip in the core-CPI inflation, the weighted average cut-off dipped to 7.65 per cent from a high 7.72 per cent last week, despite the weighted average tenor increasing to 16 years from 11, Icra Ratings chief economist Aditi Nayar said in a note.


Moreover, she said the spread between the cut-off of the 10-year state bonds and the 10-year benchmark G-sec yield declined to 50 bps from 54 bps last week.

So far this year, the states have drawn down Rs 6.57 lakh crore from the market, 35.8 per cent more than the year-ago period, when they had auctioned debt worth Rs 4.84 lakh crore.