Amid falling bond prices, the government has mopped up Rs 95,030 crore (Rs 950.30 billion) so far completing 57 per cent of the budgeted Rs 1,66,230 crore (Rs 1,662.30 billion) for the entire fiscal.

The Centre is slated to mop up another Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) through 15-year paper on October 21.

The net borrowing of the Centre amounted to Rs 62,314 crore (Rs 623.14 billion) so far, which is 58.1 per cent of the budgeted Rs 1,07,194 crore (Rs 1,071.94 billion) for the fiscal year 2003-04, PNB Gilts said in a report on Monday.

Apart from the Centre, state governments also took advantage of the soft interest rate regime to mop up Rs 6,500 crore (Rs 65 billion) in the second tranche of market borrowing.

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Abundant liquidity of Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) after the redemption of SBI's Resurgent India Bonds, coupled with lower than expected market borrowing by government and sharp appreciation in rupee sustained the bullish sentiments in the bond market with G-sec yields falling below the psychological 5.0 per cent, PNB Gilts said.

Reserve Bank of India conducted open market operations sale amounting to Rs 11,000 crore (Rs 110 billion) last week, which pushed up gilts prices somewhat. Yet the yields on benchmark 10-year government paper dipped to 4.96 per cent last week.

"The short-term outlook for gilts market continues to be optimistic on the back of comfortable liquidity. The yield curve looks poised to touch new lows during the coming week," PNB Gilts said, referring to the market expectation of a rate cut by RBI in the forthcoming credit policy.