Rupee slips as bonds hold
Mumbai: The rupee closed marginally weaker on Tuesday at 45.8650/8725 against the dollar having closed at 45.84/85 on the previous day.

Forwards Market: the six-month forward finished at 2.66 per cent (2.65 per cent) while the twelve-month forward ended at 2.25 per cent (2.20 per cent).

G-Secs: The 11-year benchmark 7.38 per cent 2015 paper closed at Rs103.45 at a yield of 6.93 per cent. The 10-year benchmark 7.37 per cent 2014 paper finished at Rs103.90 at a yield of 6.80 per cent.

Call Rates: were in the range of 4.40-4.50 per cent.

CBLO market: 149 trades worth Rs4,772.25 crore were transacted in the rate range of 4.30-4.65 per cent.
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Higher cut-off for 91 day T-bill sale
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India set a higher cut-off at 5.16 per cent (cut-off price Rs98.73) at the 91-day Treasury bill auction held on Tuesday. Of the 65 competitive bids worth Rs3,652.50 crore received, 56 bids worth Rs2,000 crore were accepted. A sole non-competitive bid worth Rs400 crore was also accepted at the auction. Cut-off had been set at 5.08 per cent at the previous auction.

At the 364-day Treasury bill auction, the cut-off price was fixed at Rs94.81(cut-off yield at 5.49 per cent), lower than the previous cut-off at Rs94.90.

Of the 102 competitive bids worth Rs5,175 crore, 32 bids worth Rs2,000 crore were accepted. One non-competitive bid worth Rs4.50 crore was also accepted.
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Government to stick to borrowings schedule
New Delhi: The Government will stick to its market-borrowing schedule despite the upward pressure on interest rates due to high inflation.

Finance ministry officials have also indicated that there was no pressure on Government finances as they are expecting the cash position to improve after excise duty collections come on October 15-16. The govt. expects Rs17,000-18,000 crore inflow from excise duties.

The RBI had brought out an indicative issuance calendar for issue of Government securities worth Rs44,000 crore in the second half of this fiscal, which was much lower than the residual amount of Rs70,000 crore to be borrowed as per the budget target.

The Centre's gross borrowings were lower by 30 per cent at Rs66,000 crore in the first half of 2004-05 despite 21 per cent higher fiscal deficit till August. The Finance Ministry has budgeted a gross borrowing of Rs1,50,681 crore for this fiscal.

Further, the Centre's net borrowings have come down drastically by 70 per cent to Rs19,224 crore so far this fiscal from Rs63,532 crore during the same period last fiscal. The Government has budgeted a net borrowing of Rs90,365 crore for 2004-05.
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SBI and LIC tie up for funding infrastructure projects
Mumbai: State Bank of India (SBI) and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) have signed an MoU, which is expected to remove the problem of asset-liability mismatch for the bank in financing long-term projects and provide LIC the opportunity to increase its exposure to the infrastructure sector.

According to the SBI, with this MoU, the bank's disbursement to infrastructure will double in the next one year. The bank said that in the current fiscal, the bank has so far sanctioned loans worth Rs6,000 crore to infrastructure projects.

SBI's total exposure to the infrastructure sector stands at about Rs27,000 crore. While SBI will evaluate the projects and fund them for short term (up to five years), LIC will take the long-term risk. The bank will continue to monitor the project till the entire loan is repaid.

The agreement also provides for a switch of assets from one institution to another.

It is targeted at infrastructure projects both in the public and private sectors, covering power, telecom, ports, roads, airports, tourism, agri-processing and warehousing.

The MoU will enable LIC towards meeting its regulatory requirement of investing 15 per cent of its funds in infrastructure and social sectors.
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ICICI Bank launches offshore unit in Bahrain
Mumbai: ICICI Bank has announced the launch of its offshore banking unit in Bahrain on October 10, 2004. The unit located at Manama Centre in Bahrain would offer several products such as real time remittances, savings accounts, time deposits, India-based products and private banking to NRI customers in Bahrain.

Wholesale banking services such as treasury products, trade finance and corporate finance to the bank's corporate clients would also be provided.
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ABN Amro joins RTGS system
Mumbai: ABN Amro Bank has announced the start of its straight through processing (STP) on Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system.

It is expected that high value clearing of cheques will benefit from this system; the high value clearing usually forms nearly 80 per cent of the value of total amount cleared. The charges for the service would be dependent on client relationship and structure of payments, bank officials said at the press conference where the announcement was made. Seventy per cent of the branches would use the system, they added.
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