India pulled off the first bond auction of its record-borrowing program after paying underwriters almost 50 times more in fees, underscoring how nervous primary dealers were over the deluge of debt.
In the end, the underwriters may have worried excessively. The government sold all ₹10,000 crore ($1.3 billion) of the benchmark bond, with a bid-to-cover ratio similar to its last sale, and a cutoff yield just two basis points above expectations.
Traders have been jittery heading into the first government auction of the fiscal year after states ended up having to offer much higher yields to get their bonds sold earlier in the week.