Rupee steady
Mumbai: The domestic currency closed almost unchanged at 45.8650.

Forwards Market: The six-month forward closed at 2.43 per cent (2.34 per cent) while the twelve-month forward ended at 2.10 per cent (1.97 per cent).

G-Secs: The 10-year benchmark 7.38 per cent 2014 paper closed at a yield of 6.51 per cent, unchanged from previous close. The 11-year benchmark 7.38 per cent 2015 paper finished at Rs107.10 with yield at 6.46 per cent.

Call Rates: Closed at 4.25-4.50 per cent.

CBLO Market: 140 trades worth Rs5,133.05 crore were transacted in the rate range of 4.4- 4.85 per cent.
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RBI segregates companies for premature repayment of deposits
Mumbai: By way of prepayments for accepted public deposits, the Reserve Bank of India has decided to segregate companies that accept such deposits into 'problem' and normally run companies.

Expressing concern over non-banking entities offering premature repayment to depositors, the apex bank has prohibited 'problem companies' from prematurely repaying deposits.

"Certain companies have offered to the depositors the right to premature repayment. Such repayments may vitiate the ALM discipline of companies. In case of a company whose assets may be insufficient to meet all its outside liabilities, such repayments may result in preferential treatment to those depositors who exit early," said the apex bank in a circular issued to all non-banking financial companies, miscellaneous non-banking companies and residuary non-banking companies.

The circular said that the provisions need a review for the purpose of safeguarding the ALM discipline among the companies and to restrict preferential prepayment.

The existing contracts granting the right for premature withdrawal on the depositor would remain unchanged, according to the RBI circular.
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T-bill auction rates
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has set a cut-off price of Rs98.75 (cut-off yield 5.08 per cent) at the 91-day treasury bill auction held on Wednesday. This cut-off price was marginally lower than the previous cut-off at Rs 98.76.

Of the 87 competitive bids worth Rs 4,067.17 crore received for the auction, 64 bids worth the notified amount of Rs 2,000 crore were accepted. The partial allotment percentage of competitive bids was at 6.02 per cent, while the weighted average price was Rs 98.76.
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LIC (South) premium income up 155.4 percent for H1
Chennai: The Life Insurance Corporation's South Zone division has announced that its new business premium from individuals in the first half of 2004-05 was Rs672 crore (Rs263 crore), up by 155.4 per cent in relation to the previous year's corresponding period.

LIC South Zone's press release said that the total premium in the first half was over Rs4,000 crore. The release added that the south zone stood first among LIC's seven business zones.
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Dena Bank loans on easier terms for M&M tractors
Mumbai: The Dena Bank has signed an MoU with Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (M&M) to extend financial assistance to farmers buying M&M tractors.

Against the norm of 15-25 per cent margin money, the bank will finance M&M tractors at lower margin money of five per cent of the invoice cost of the tractor.

"Even the land holding requirement has been reduced from existing eight acres of perennially irrigated land to four acres and the loans are repayable over a period of 7-9 years,'' an official statement said.

On its part, M&M is offering a cash discount of Rs3,000 on the invoice price of the tractor to be passed on directly to the farmer.
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HSBC to take investments in the country to $1billion
Mumbai: Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd (HSBC) has said that it is looking at acquisitions in India subject to availability of opportunity and regulatory provisions. The bank would keenly pursue organic growth through areas such as asset management, private banking and personal financial services market.

The bank is planning investments of about $400 million in the Indian market, which would take its cumulative investment to $1 billion, though no time frame was decided as yet for these investments. At present, the bank's Indian investments stand at around $600 million including the financial investments in UTI Bank.

The bank also plans to open new branches of which three branches would be opened this year taking the total number of branches to 40. Another 5 - 10 branches would be set up later.

In order to support functions catering to the global requirements of HSBC, the bank is planning to open a service centre in India. This would help front-end operations in other countries through credit analysis, equity analysis, data collection and other functions.

French speaking people would be required for manning this centre.
Profits through banking operations of HSBC India witnessed a 40 per cent growth for the January to June half of 2004 as it reached $86 million for the period.
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