Leading bourse National Stock Exchange (NSE) will tomorrow auction investment limits for foreign investors to buy government debt securities worth Rs 852 crore.

The auction will be conducted on NSE’s ebid platform from 1530 hours to 1730 hours, after the close of market hours on Monday, November 2, the exchange said in a circular.

The debt auction quota gives overseas investors the right to invest in the debt, up to the limit purchased.

A mock bidding session was conducted on Friday to check the system performance.

Depository data showed that total investments, including limits acquired by foreign investors through the auction route, stood at Rs 1,29,048 crore till October 29, which is 99.34 per cent of the total permitted investment limit of Rs 1,29,900 crore in government debt securities.

Consequently, the exchange has decided to “conduct an auction for the allocation of unutilised debt limits on November 2, 2015,” NSE said.

During earlier auctions, government bonds have always been subscribed multiple times, given the huge interest among foreign investors, while the demand for corporate bonds remains low.

Earlier this month, an auction for government bonds worth Rs 5,600 crore had attracted bids to the tune of Rs 17,266 crore. It included the increased investment cap announced by markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

SEBI has decided to enhance the limit for investment by FPIs in government securities in two tranches from October 12, 2015 and January 1, 2016.

The limit for overseas investors in securities has been hiked to Rs 1,29,900 crore on October 12 and would be further shored up to Rs 1,35,400 crore from January 1, 2016.

Earlier, they were allowed to invest up to Rs 1,24,432 crore in government debt securities through auction.

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