Bond yields little changed ahead of state debt sale

India government bond yields were flattish in early trade on Tuesday as traders awaited a weekly state debt sale and fresh cues from U.S. economic data later this week.

The benchmark 10-year yield was at 6.8746% at 10:15 a.m. IST compared with its previous close of 6.8754%.

Later in the day, eleven Indian states plan to raise 205.5 billion rupees ($2.45 billion) via a sale of bonds, lower than the scheduled quantum of 275 billion rupees.

Market participants are also awaiting U.S. non-farm payrolls data later this week after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell last month said a slowdown in the labour market was "unmistakable", hinting at a shift in the central bank's focus towards the job market over fighting inflation.

U.S. Treasury yields advanced on Friday and remained higher in Asian trade on Monday after personal consumption expenditure data showed an uptick, raising expectations that the Fed was likely to opt for a smaller rate cut at its September meeting.

U.S. markets were shut on Monday for a holiday.

Markets are fully pricing an at least 25 basis-point rate cut at the Fed's September meeting. Expectations for a 50 basis-point reduction, however, fell to 31% from 34% last week.

Meanwhile, India's economic growth slowed to 6.7% year-on-year in the April-June quarter due to a decline in government spending during the national elections, but the country remains the world's fastest-growing major economy.

"We expect annual growth to moderate following the blistering pace in the previous year, but turn more balanced, driven by a pickup in rural consumption from a favourable monsoon season, and gradual recovery in exports," economists at Barclays said in a note.

“Easing of monetary policy, anticipated from December, may provide some boost, though a large part of the policy transmission, and hence, impact on growth, will be visible only next year.”