MUMBAI, Aug 20 (Reuters) - India's central bank said on Thursday it had bought back bonds worth 54.11 billion rupees through an auction under its open market operation where it received bids totalling 130.59 billion rupees. It bought back 46.27 billion rupees of the 7.37 percent bonds maturing in 2014 at a cut-off price of 101.66 rupees, which corresponds to a yield of 6.9001 percent. The median forecast in a Reuters poll was for a cut-off price of 101.79 rupees or a yield of 6.9102 percent for the 2014 bond. The central bank bought back 3.86 billion rupees of the 8.24 percent bonds maturing in 2018 at a cut-off price of 106.03 rupees, which corresponds to a yield of 7.2870 percent. The median forecast in a Reuters poll was for a cut-off price of 100.84 rupees or a yield of 7.1511 percent for the 2023 bond. The central bank said it did not accept any offers for the 6.05 percent 2019 bond but bought back 3.98 billion rupees of the 7.50 percent bonds maturing in 2034 at a cut-off price of 94.62 rupees, which corresponds to a yield of 8.0007 percent. The median forecast in a Reuters poll was for a cut-off price of 94.50 rupees or a yield of 8.0124 percent for the 2034 bond. The buyback auction was held one day ahead of an auction to sell 120 billion rupees of government bonds. The central bank has been holding buyback auctions since mid-February as it seeks to avoid the heavy government borrowing from hurting the secondary government bond market. (Reporting by Swati Bhat; Editing by Ramya Venugopal)

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