Indian bond yields off 6-wk lows on profit taking

* HSBC India sees 10-yr bond in 7.10-7.25 pct range this wk

* Cbank to auction $1.5 bln of treasury bills on Wednesday

By Neha D'silva

MUMBAI, Nov 24 - Indian federal bond yields came off lows on Tuesday as traders took profits after yields fell to six-week lows in the absence of a bond auction this week and ample cash conditions.

The yield on the 10-year benchmark bond <IN069019G=CC> ended at 7.21 percent, after falling as low as 7.18 percent in intra-day trade, matching the six-week low touched on Friday. It had ended at 7.22 percent on Monday.

Volumes were a heavy 119.70 billion rupees on the central bank's trading platform.

"Lower trend is still favourable, but you will have bouts of profit taking," said Vineet Malik, head of interest rates at HSBC India, who expects the 10-year benchmark yield to trade in the range of 7.10-7.25 percent this week.

Cash levels in the banking system were robust with banks parking 1.08 trillion rupees in the central bank's reverse repo window.

Traders said supplies remaining for the fiscal year, at just 640 billion rupees, would be adequately balanced by demand in the market.

The results of the state loan auction were in line with market expectations and did not provide any direction. [ID:nMBI005932]

The central bank is scheduled to auction 70 billion rupees of treasury bills on Wednesday.

The benchmark five-year interest rate swap ended at 6.49/53 percent, down from a previous close of 6.54/58 percent. [IN-SWAPS] ((neha.dsilva@thomsonreuters.com; Tel: +91 22 6636 9033; Reuters Messaging: neha.dsilva.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) ((If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com))