Rupee down five paise - G-secs flat
Mumbai: Strong dollar buying drove the rupee further down on Wednesday to end at 43.73/75 levels against Tuesday's close of 43.69/70 levels. Over the last three sessions, the rupee has lost 24 paise on dollar buying.

Forwards market: The six-month quoted at 2.70 per cent at the close and the 12-month at 1.70 per cent.

G-Secs: The benchmark 7.38 per cent paper closed at 6.53 per cent as against 6.55 per cent previously.

Call Rate: There was not much activity in the inter-bank call money market and it closed flat at 4.70- 4.80 per cent levels.

CBLO market: 123 trades aggregating Rs3,906.85 crore were put through in the rate range of 4.68-4.85 per cent.
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ICICI Prudential hikes capital base by Rs100 crore
Mumbai: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company has increased its capital base by Rs100 crore, taking its total paid-up equity capital to Rs925 crore. The two partners, ICICI Bank and Prudential, have been issued 10 crore equity shares of Rs10 each, in their existing proportions of 74:26 respectively.

This is the eleventh equity hike since the company was incorporated in December 2000. The authorised capital of the company stands at Rs1,200 crore.

The company grew nearly 127 per cent in April-December 2004 over the same period last year. The additional capital will be used to meet capital adequacy norms as stipulated by the regulator, and will fund the high up-front expenses typical to a life insurance business, and expansion plans such as opening new branches, the release said.
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Andhra Bank's automobile loan scheme for women
Hyderabad: Andhra Bank has come out with an automobile loan scheme exclusively designed for women. The scheme offers features such as concessional interest rate and insurance for loan liability as well as life of the borrower at a nominal premium. The loan scheme 'AB Vanitha Vahan' is for the purchase of two or four-wheeler vehicles offers 50 basis points reduction in the rate of interest.

The scheme also offers another 50 basis points of concession in the rate of interest for prompt payment at the time of closure of the loan account and does not attract any processing charges, he said.
The bank would provide finance up to 90 per cent of the road price for two and four-wheelers, both for new and pre-owned ones.

The bank has reduced the rate of interest on four-wheelers to 8.75 per cent from 9.25 per cent for a repayment period of up to 36 months and to nine per cent from 9.5 per cent for a repayment period of over 36 months. In the case of two-wheelers, the interest rate was slashed to 9.25 per cent from 9.75 per cent on 36 months repayment schedule, while it was reduced to 9.5 per cent from 10 per cent for above 36 months repayment plan.

Explaining the strategy behind focussing on women for enhancing credit portfolio, the bank said that the number of women in the salaried, professional as well as self-employed categories has been witnessing a growth every year. The bank's credit to women now stands at Rs1,043 crore, constituting 7.08 per cent as against the norm of five per cent.
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