Rising sovereign bond yields have pushed India's 10-year government bond yield to a 12-month high of 6.

Rising sovereign bond yields have pushed India's 10-year government bond yield to a 12-month high of 6.96%, creating significant mark-to-market losses for banks in the March quarter. Geopolitical tensions, the US-Israel-Iran conflict, and elevated crude oil prices have driven the sharp 28 basis point increase in March alone. Despite the Reserve Bank of India's aggressive intervention through open market operations totaling 4.57 lakh crore in the fourth quarter, analysts expect most banks will face losses on their government securities portfolios. HDFC Bank's trading and MTM income already declined sharply to 9 billion rupees in December from 24 billion in September and 101 billion in June. Treasury experts note that banks holding bonds purchased between 6.30% and 6.