Rupee gains six more
Mumbai: The rupee gained six paise at 43.67/68 in its value against the dollar on Monday. It opened at 43.73, touched a high of 43.65/66 and a low of 43.7750.
Forwards Market- The six-month premium closed at 0.56 per cent (0.69 per cent) and the one year closed at 0.47 per cent (0.56 per cent).
Call Money- The rates moved in a wide range of 3-4.35 per cent to close at 3.5 per cent.
G-Secs- the 7.46 per cent 2017 paper ended at Rs 119.55. The 6.72 per cent 2014 paper closed at Rs 112.05.
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RBI: Rupee rise due to huge capital flows
Mumbai: According to Dr Rakesh Mohan, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, the recent surge in the value of the rupee against the US dollar is mainly due to the sharp increase in capital flows. He said there was no change in terms of the operational procedure on the thinking of forex management. The rupee has been steadily and sharply appreciating since March 22.
On the new liquidity adjustment scheme, Dr Mohan said, "We would like to operate LAF purely for liquidity management and not for sterilisation purposes."
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SBI Frankfurt switches to Flexcube
Bangalore: i-flex Solutions has announced that the State Bank of India, Frankfurt, has selected Flexcube as its core banking solution. Flexcube will replace the bank's existing system that has been operational for the last eight years. SBI Frankfurt, is one of the largest branches of SBI abroad.
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Dhanalakshmi Bank to expand at a national level
Kochi: Thrissur-based Dhanalakshmi Bank has chalked out an expansion plan, which aims at achieving a business of Rs 10,000 crore by March 2007. The Bank has said in a statement here that it is expanding operations in other States, and intends to open in metros and mini metros with online connectivity in a phased manner. Apart from a hundred ATMs that will come up in other centres, the bank says that Internet banking and anywhere banking will also become operational soon.
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Canara Bank business up 19 pc in 2003-04
Bangalore: Canara Bank has said its global business for 2003-04 was close to Rs 1,33,900 crore, up 18.92 per cent from a year ago. While deposits grew 19.70 per cent to Rs 86,300 crore, advances shot up by 17.61 per cent to Rs 47,600, a bank statement said. Retail lending, that accounted for 16.39 per cent of total credit was the driver for the last fiscal.

Outstanding retail advances grew by 40.14 per cent to reach Rs 7,800 crore from Rs 5,566 crore. Within retail portfolio, housing loans shot up by 76.54 per cent to reach Rs 2,800 crore from Rs 1,586 crore. Priority sector advances also rose by 26.68 per cent to touch Rs 18,500 crore, accounting for 41.78 per cent of the bank's net credit.
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UTI-MF ties up with Allahabad Bank
Kolkata: UTI Mutual Fund has tied up with Allahabad Bank for distributing its schemes, the fourth bank in the country with which it has entered into a strategic arrangement.

The Kolkata-based bank will offer the entire range of funds managed by UTI MF. Allahabad Bank, which has about 15 million depositors, will use 150 branches for distributing UTI products. The 140-year old Allahabad Bank, has turned around in recent times after being in trouble in the early 1990s.
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Stabilisation Bonds to absorb FDI-induced liquidity
Mumbai: According to RBI officials, with the recent introduction of the seven-day repo and dismantling of the one-day repo facility, the amounts absorbed through LAF should come down. According to the officials, LAF should work as an instrument to absorb the residual liquidity in the system and be the last resort to deploy funds. It is expected that the market stabilisation bonds (6.18 per cent 2005 paper of Rs 5,000 crore to be floated on Tuesday) will be easily subscribed given the level of liquidity in the system.

RBI is expected to float bonds worth Rs 60,000 crore in this fiscal. These funds will not be invested, either in the domestic markets or in the international ones, since investments would defeat the purpose of stabilisation. According to Dr Rakesh Mohan, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, "Market stabilisation bonds will be used to take away the enduring liquidity created due to the excess dollar inflows while the LAF window will be used to manage day-to-day liquidity."
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I-T clarification on tax holiday benefits
New Delhi: The Finance Ministry has clarified that the income-tax provision (Sec 10A(9)) requiring denial of Section 10A tax holiday benefits on account of the transfer of ownership in an undertaking should not be applied for those cases where the transfer has taken place prior to April 1, 2000. Section 10A(9) of the Income-Tax Act, 1961, provides that where during any previous year, the ownership or the beneficial interest in the undertaking is transferred by any means, the deduction under Section 10A would not be allowed to the assessee for the assessment year relevant to such previous year and subsequent years.

"Since Section 10A(9) has been brought on the statute prospectively with effect from April 1, 2001 i.e from assessment year 2001-02, the provision will operate only if there is a change in the beneficial ownership during the previous year 2000-01 relevant to assessment year 2001-02 or in subsequent years", a circular issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) circular has said.
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