‘Suspicion’ over recent Treasury bond purchases
View(s):Deals by two ‘influential’ money market traders who purchased large stocks of Treasury bonds and sold it at a premium a few weeks later to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) are raising many questions, dealers said. ”We have no proof or evidence but the process appeared to be very suspicious,” one dealer said, adding that the deals have been over the past few months.
Dealers said that the two traders unusually bid at a higher rate for large blocks. A few weeks later these institutions sold the bonds to EPF at a profit while the state agency, which is eligible to buy in the primary market on its own, stands to lose on the deal. “Why didn’t the EPF buy in the primary market?” asked one dealer. The last crisis to hit the market was in February 2015 when questions were raised over the CB’s 10-billion rupee bond sale which was sold at higher than normal rates.