Bonds Mostly Bid In Cautious Trade

Generally risk averse trade saw safe havens gain.

• INDIA: Yields lower with equity markets seeing heavy selling, while a record number of daily coronavirus cases at over 168k calls for further caution. Friday's auction was weak again, despite the advent of a new purchase programme from the RBI. Primary dealers were left to salvage the sale again, the seventh time in 2021. Underwriters bought INR 109.3bn of the INR 110bn of new 2026 bonds on offer.
• SOUTH KOREA: Futures ground higher from the open and have retraced around half of Friday's drop. Positive news in the form of lower coronavirus cases and robust exports couldn't derail the bid for safe haven assets. The 3-year auction from the MOF was well received.
• CHINA: The PBOC matched maturities with injections again today, the twenty fourth straight session of matching maturities, while the bank hasn't injected funds since February 25. The overnight repo rate is has dropped having risen at the open, last down 1.75bps at 1.7825%, while the 7-day repo rate has risen 15bps at 2.0038%, still below the PBOC's 2.20% rate. Futures are higher alongside other regional bonds, 10-year future up 0.18 at 97.385. Markets await a raft of data from China this week; trade balance, GDP, industrial production and retail sales are all due.
• INDONESIA: Yields higher across the curve as bonds sell off, bucking the regional trend. Late doors on Friday, Bank Indonesia said they see CPI at +1.37% Y/Y in the first two weeks of Apr, with inflation driven by certain food commodities. Elsewhere, PT Bio Farma Pres Basyir suggested that the private sector has secured 40mn doses of Covid-19 vaccines from China and Russia, with deliveries expected later this month.