Rupee up nine paise as securities rise
Mumbai: The rupee firmed up by 9 paise on Thursday closing at 45.54/55 per dollar against Wednesday's level of 45.63/64.

Forwards Market: The six-month premia closed at 2.6 per cent (2.8 per cent) and the one-year premium ended at 2.2 per cent (2.3 per cent).

G-Secs: Were up by 45 paise in some maturities. The 7.38 per cent 2015 paper opened at Rs103 and got dealt up to Rs103.45.

Call rates: Steady in the 4.75 per cent range in the inter-bank market.

CBLO Market: 123 trades were conducted to the tune of Rs4,407 crore.
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RRBs can act as insurance agents
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India has given the go ahead to Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) to undertake insurance business as corporate agents, without risk participation.

The bank has said that the RRBs must have a positive net worth and must have the prudential norms on income recognition, asset classification, provisioning, investment norms, exposure norms, according to a circular issued by the bank.

The bank should not have violated any directive in the last two years and should not have gross NPAs of more than 10 per cent. The bank should be in net profit during last three years and should not have any accumulated losses, the RBI has said.

The RRBs wanting to undertake such business should comply with the IRDA norms and should not adopt any restrictive practice of forcing its customers to go in only for a particular insurance company in respect of assets financed by the bank.
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Canara Bank Q2 net up 22 per cent
Bangalore: Canara Bank has reported a 22 per cent increase in net profits in the second quarter of this fiscal despite fall in treasury incomes.

The Bank said that net profit for the second quarter was Rs396.79 crore, up from Rs325.35 crore in the same period last year. The bank improved its net profit despite sharp drop in operating profits during the period. Operating profit in the second quarter was Rs574.84 crore (Rs998.43 crore). However, since the provisions were low, the bank's net profit improved.

Gross provisions were Rs178 crore (Rs673.08 crore). Gross income fell to Rs2,206.12 crore in Q2, down from Rs2,521 .85 crore. Interest income was Rs1,839.65 crore (Rs1,745.27 crore).

The Canara Bank has fully provided for its exposure in the BPL group and treated it as a sub-standard asset. Bank sources said that they had provided Rs100 crore this quarter. The gross provisions made for non-performing assets during the second half of this year was Rs 240 crore which included the BPL group. Last quarter, Canara Bank provided Rs50 crore.
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Andhra Bank Q2 net down 20 per cent
Mumbai: Higher provisioning led Andhra Bank Ltd to record a 20 per cent dip in net profit at Rs109.33 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, as against Rs136.98 crore in the same period last year.

Provisions and contingencies during Q2 zoomed to Rs194.89 crore (Rs71.91 crore). During the quarter, the bank shifted a portion of its G-Secs to the `held to maturity' category, as per RBI guidelines, by charging a depreciation to the tune of Rs153.25 crore, arising out of shifting of securities. While Treasury income of the bank was at Rs168.90 crore (Rs143 crore), total income grew to Rs828.79 crore (Rs770.39 crore).

Total expenditure was at Rs488.57 (Rs499.50). The bank's net profit during the half year ended September 30, was at Rs259.49 crore (Rs255.66 crore).
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IndusInd Bank Q2 profit at Rs.59 crore
Mumbai: Indusind Bank Ltd registered a decline of 22.7 per cent in net profit to Rs58.91 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2004 as against Rs76.23 crore in the second quarter of the previous fiscal.

The current results of the bank include the financial performance of the erstwhile Ashok Leyland Finance and therefore are not comparable.

For the half-year ended September, net profit registered a marginal increase of 3.49 per cent to Rs104.39 crore.
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Kotak Mahindra Q2 profit up at Rs.20.65 crore
Mumbai: Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd has recorded a marginal increase in net profit at Rs20.65 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2004, as against Rs19.84 crore in the same period last fiscal. Total income went up by over 33 per cent to Rs123.16 crore (Rs92.18 crore). This is inclusive of interest earned at Rs97.52 crore (Rs67.07 crore) and other income at Rs25.63 crore (Rs25.10 crore).

Total expenditure grew by nearly 53 per cent to Rs 90.95 crore (Rs 59.53 crore). This is inclusive of interest expended at Rs 42.78 crore (Rs 30.56 crore) and operating expenses at Rs 48.17 crore (Rs 28.96 crore).
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ING Vysya posts Rs.29.2 crore loss
Bangalore: ING Vysya Bank has proposed increasing its capital by Rs300 crore through a rights issue for expanding lending and to partly offset the erosion in capital during the current year.

The bank said that its Tier-I capital had eroded to 5.75 per cent in the second quarter, down from the March figure of 6.14 per cent. The Tier-I funds, which included both equity and free reserves, was Rs473.57 crore as against Rs539.43 crore in March this year.

For the second quarter of the year ended September, the bank has posted a net loss of Rs29.2 crore as against a profit of Rs25 crore during the corresponding period of the previous year. The losses were driven by the sharp rise in yields, as a result of which the bank incurred a large depreciation. Besides, income from treasury operations has also dropped.
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Deutsche Bank (I) hikes capital by Rs.419 crore
Chennai: The Deutsche Bank (India) has announced the infusion of Rs419 crore ($91 million) to its existing capital base of Rs832 crore.

Deutsche Bank currently operates through five branches in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata. The fresh capital would be used to scale up its existing business - including corporate business, asset management, custodial business and private wealth management, the bank has said.
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Sundaram Fin. and Lakshmi Gen. Fin. fix swap ratio
Chennai: The boards of Sundaram Finance and Lakshmi General Finance have decided that the swap ratio for merger of the two companies will be one share of Sundaram Finance for every 1.52 shares of LGF.

The swap ratio was arrived at on the advice of ICRA Advisory Services and CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory. The valuation took into account the market position, quality of assets, funding profile, investments and growth opportunities for both companies.

Sundaram Finance says that the merger would take effect from April 1, 2004. Sundaram Finance will get a large client base and 260 trained employees from the merger.
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