The government has decided to repurchase a series of sovereign bonds at least two months earlier than the scheduled maturity in January next year, signaling New Delhi's comfortable cash balance.The bonds, which offered 6.25 per cent, will be repurchased through reverse auction for an aggregate amount of Rs 10,000 crore, the Reserve Bank of India said late Thursday. "The repurchase by the government of India will be undertaken to redeem prematurely the government stocks by utilising surplus cash balances. "Dealers said the move indicates that the government now has a comfortable cash balance that can be used to repay bond holders. "The government may be cash surplus after tax collections," said Piyush Wadhwa, head of rates trading at IDFC Bank . "The securities were probably sold in 2008, dealers said, and the latest stock would be about Rs 16,000-17,000 crore.

Source: Economic Times November 10, 2017 03:11 UTC