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Informist, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026

 

By Vaishali Tyagi

 

MUMBAI – Yields on corporate bonds remained in a narrow band in the secondary market Thursday as trading activity was mixed, with mutual funds rebalancing portfolios and other participants carrying out need-based trades, dealers said. Movement in yields was also limited as market participants shifted their focus to issuances in the primary market, dealers said.

 

"Secondary market activity was pretty normal today with no significant activity, with traders focused on primary issuance mainly NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development), waiting for fresh deals," a dealer at a brokerage firm said. "Some people are taking calculative bets and avoiding big bets ahead of budget." Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Budget for 2026-27 (Apr-Mar) on Sunday.

In the primary market, bond issuances aggregated INR 92 billion, up from INR 10.30 billion Wednesday. Dealers expect activity in the primary market to remain mixed ahead of the Budget and the outcome of the meeting of the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee next week.

 

NABARD raised INR 68.64 billion at a coupon of 7.27% through bonds maturing on Feb. 23, 2029. According to the bid book accessed by Informist, the company received 102 bids aggregating INR 137.74 billion in the coupon range of 7.00-7.50%. Dealers had expected the coupon on the bonds to be in the range of 7.25-7.30%. On Dec. 29, NABARD had scrapped the same bond issuance as investors demanded a higher coupon.

 

On Friday, bond issuances worth nearly INR 16 billion are lined up. A handful of companies will raise funds from the corporate debt market, with one key issuance of Hindustan Zinc, which plans to raise INR 14 billion. The company will issue bonds carrying a separately transferable redeemable principal part structure, where the principal and coupon payments are stripped and sold separately to investors.

 

In the secondary market, mutual funds, insurance companies, and banks were seen buying and selling papers across tenures. Pension funds and corporates were largely absent from the market. The volume on the National Stock Exchange and BSE combined was INR 117.55 billion, marginally higher than INR 111.38 billion Wednesday.

 

Bonds issued by Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Indian Railway Finance Corp., Indian Overseas Bank, Andhra Pradesh State Beverages Corp, The Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corp., Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board, Nuvama Wealth and Investment, and Hinduja Leyland Finance were traded the most.

 

UDAY BONDS

In the secondary market, none of the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana bonds were traded Thursday, according to data on the RBI's Negotiated Dealing System-Order Matching system.

 

BENCHMARK LEVELS FOR CORPORATE BONDS

Tenure	Thursday	Wednesday
Three-year	7.23-7.25%	7.22-7.24%
Five-year	7.35-7.38%	7.34-7.37%
10-year	7.38-7.46%	7.38-7.45%

 

End

 

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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