Banks park only ₹37,558 crore of RBI’s ₹2 lakh crore reverse repo; ₹1.5 lakh crore overnight drain and ₹25,000 crore bond sale run this morning

Mid-afternoon on Day 1 of public bidding, HD Fire Protect’s book is already past 3×, led by non-institutional bids. LoanFront’s SME book is barely started at 0.08×. Fusion CX’s anchor allocation report is not yet on the exchange archive; its public window and Ravita’s open Wednesday.

India’s IPO week flipped from anchor day to public books. Fire-protection maker HD Fire Protect locked ₹213.11 crore of institutional money at the top of its band on Monday. Two issues — HD Fire and digital lender Vaibhav Vyapaar (LoanFront) — open to everyone this morning; Fusion CX runs its anchor book the same day.

Friday’s bounce did not hold. The Nifty gave back most of that gain on Monday as retail inflation printed a hotter 5.54% for September and foreign funds sold for an eighth straight session. IT major HCLTech still delivered its highest-ever quarterly profit, and the RBI’s ₹25,000 crore bond sale lands this morning.

The RBI offered banks a three-day home for up to ₹2 lakh crore on Monday. They put in less than a fifth of that. Friday’s ₹1.4 lakh crore three-day deposit came back the same morning, so far less cash was parked with the central bank going into a week of tighter reserve rules. Today the RBI tries again overnight and sells ₹25,000 crore of bonds at the same time.

The RBI’s Saturday package did what it was built to do on day one: the rupee’s official reference rate strengthened by almost 87 paise. But the same week the central bank is making rupees scarcer for banks, and bond yields moved up. A steadier currency is coming with costlier money.

Five days after its rate hike, the RBI is pulling more cash out of the banking system. Banks will soon have almost no room to dip below their reserve requirement on any day, the RBI will sell ₹25,000 crore of government bonds on Tuesday, and a ₹2 lakh crore reverse repo runs this morning. Friday’s 10-day auction drew only ₹18,170 crore of ₹1.5 lakh crore. Loans are growing faster than deposits.

Tata Consultancy Services filed its September-quarter numbers with the exchanges on Thursday. Revenue rose to ₹73,188 crore, net profit was ₹13,884 crore, and the company said annualised AI revenue crossed $3.1 billion — more than 10% of revenue. It also flagged transformational deals with Porsche AG and Best Buy, and declared a ₹12 per share dividend.

Three filings after Wednesday's close. Tata Steel says its India arm made 6.21 million tons of crude steel in the September quarter, up 10% from a year earlier, and shipped 5.97 million tons, up 15% from the June quarter. Jeweller Senco Gold says retail revenue grew 29% with same-store sales up 19%. And JSW Steel repaid a $500 million bond six months early.

India’s two biggest listed jewellers told the exchanges their September quarter was strong. Titan’s consumer businesses grew about 25%, with jewellery up about 21% and gold coins down; Kalyan Jewellers’ consolidated revenue rose more than 26% on about 20% same-store growth. Dabur expects its India FMCG business to hit double-digit growth, and Mamaearth-owner Honasa expects early-thirties growth — while flagging inflation.