This aggressive OMO comes at a time when the State Bank of India is all set to strike the first off-market deal with the RBI this week swapping the foreign currency proceeds of the India Resurgent Bonds with rupees. Analysts interpreted the RBI move as an attempt to sterilise the excess liquidity that is expected to come into the system on account of the inflow of rupee resources from the bond. The five-year multi-currency instrument has so far mopped up $ 2.5 billion.

The RBI's new sale list has five securities. The 11.15 per cent 2002 is on offer at Rs 98.41 which works out to a yield of 11.65 per cent, in line with yields offered on previously traded papers of similar maturities. The RBI has worth of Rs 5,500 crore of this security on its books.

The second security -- the 11.95 per cent 2004 -- had found a lot of takers when it was previously on RBI's sale list at Rs 100.31. Now it is offered at a slightly lower yield. This is being done as analysts say that the RBI is left with only Rs 230 crore worth of this security with itself.

Both the 12.15 per cent 2008 security and 11.19 per cent 2005 bonds have been on the sale list at the same price of Rs 99.91 and Rs 96.39 respectively. The RBI has worth of Rs 2,000 crore of the 12.15 per cent 2008 paper while it holds Rs 4500 crore of the 11.19 per cent 2005 stock. The 11.75 per cent 2006 paper at Rs 98.02 gives an yield of 12.02 per cent and is one of the illiquid securities in the market. The RBI holds Rs 5,000 crore of this security on its books.

The apex bank has so far mopped up Rs 3,000 crore in the past one month, of which the last week itself witnessed mopping up Rs 2,000 crore through OMOs. The OMO is done to suck out liquidity and reduce monetisation. This is in line with the RBI governor Bimal Jalan's statement that the central bank intends to pare monetisation through OMOs.