
Bond blues: Rising yields, market shifts derail corporate debt funding in FY26
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Mumbai: The financial year ended on March was expected to be another record-breaking year for India's corporate bond fundraising. However, the debt market lost momentum following a sharp rise in yields, and a shift in supply and demand dynamics.Funds raised through private placement of listed corporate bonds fell 9% year-on-year to ₹8.99 trillion in FY26, according to data by the Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
In all, 1,924 issuers tapped the market last year. In FY25, 1,659 firms had borrowed ₹9.87 trillion through corporate bond sales.A sharp rise in government bond yields eroded the cost advantage corporate bonds had enjoyed over bank loans in FY25 and early FY26, nudging borrowers toward cheaper bank funding.
Traditionally, corporate bonds mirror government securities.“The advantage that corporate bonds had in FY25 and the first half of FY26 over the bank lending rate significantly diminished because the yield rose quite a lot,” said Soumyajit Niyogi, director at India Ratings and Research.Yield on the 10-year benchmark government bond rose 55 basis points year-on-year in FY26 to 7.03% as of March end. Consequently, those on 10-year corporate bonds issued by benchmark National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) jumped over 60 bps to 7.73%.
Government bond yields hit their lowest level of 6.23% on 28 May 2025 and their highest on 30 March 2026 at 7.03%.This came despite cumulative repo rate cuts of 125 bps by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2025, due to supply-demand dynamics and tight liquidity conditions. This was compounded by global headwinds, including trade tensions and recessionary concerns stemming from the West Asia war, which weighed on
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