Rupee steady; bonds subdued
Mumbai: The domestic currency closed four paise stronger at 46.29/30 against the dollar on Thursday.
Forwards Market: The six-month premium ended at 1.88 per cent (2.05 per cent), while the one-year premium ended at 1.68 per cent (1.88 per cent).
G-Secs: The 7.37 per cent 2014 got dealt up to Rs.110.40 - 5.95 per cent yield-to-maturity (Rs 110.50), while the 7.38 per cent 2015 got dealt at Rs.110.60.
Call Rates: remained at around 4.50 per cent in the inter-bank market.
CBLO Market: 124 trades were conducted amounting to Rs.4,141.10 crore in the rate range of 4.05-4.40 per cent.
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Govt to amend laws to facilitate merger of PSBs
New Delhi: The Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, has said that the Government would encourage consolidation within public sector banks and would help bring about a favourable legislative framework that would facilitate mergers.

"We are not going to push for consolidation. However, if banks want to consolidate we will not come in the way," Mr Chidambaram said after a daylong meeting with chief executives of public sector banks here.

He said that legal amendments, including minor ones required in the Income-Tax Act, would be brought about to remove any hurdles in consolidation. "We need a small amendment in the I-T Act which would be carried out in February next," Chidambaram said.
The Finance Minister also said that the Government would encourage banks to raise further capital by way of public issues. "I have encouraged them to go to the capital market," he said.
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RBI: Two NBFCs derecognised
Hyderabad: RBI has cancelled the certificates of registration granted to two Hyderabad-based NBFCs, Dalia Securities Ltd and Chillakuru Investments Pvt Ltd.

In two separate announcements, RBI said that following the cancellation of registrations, these entities should not transact the business of NBFCs.
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G-Secs: 9-year floaters receive lukewarm response
Mumbai: The Rs.4,000-crore auction of the nine-year floating rate bonds devolved on both the primary dealers (PDs) and the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday.

The cut-off spread was fixed at 0.45 per cent while the base rate for the first year was fixed at 5.02 per cent. The rate of interest for the first half-year was at 5.47 per cent, said an RBI press release.

The RBI received and accepted one non-competitive bid amounting to Rs.48 lakh , while it received a total of 96 competitive bids amounting to Rs.4,505 crore, of which 70 competitive bids amounting to Rs.2,755 crore were accepted.
Meanwhile, the Rs.3,000-crore auction of the 6.65 per cent 2009 paper was fully subscribed.
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Shriram group to foray into insurance business
Chennai: The Chennai based Shriram group made three announcements on Thursday - its intention to get into life insurance business, association with Ceylinco Insurance Company of Sri Lanka to set up non-life insurance businesses in a number of countries and a possible takeover of a direct-cum-reinsurance broking firm in India.

The Shriram group has a stake in some of the Ceylinco group ventures in Sri Lanka. Ceylinco has a stake in Armour Consultants, the broking arm of the Shriram group and both have a joint venture running in Thailand.

Ceylinco intends to set up shop in Egypt, Madagascar, Zimbabwe and a few countries in South East Asia. The Shriram group could invest about Rs.10 crore in these overseas joint ventures with Ceylinco, over the next 2-3 years.

The group was also close to finalising a deal to takeover the management of an existing composite insurance broking company.
The Shriram group is predominantly into financial services — it has four NBFCs doing mainly truck finance — and has investments in other areas such as IT, property development and pharmaceuticals.
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