Money market: Rupee slips further - bonds firm up
Mumbai: Aggressive dollar buying by state-run banks pushed the rupee lower versus the dollar on Thursday, with the rupee closing the day at 43.80/81 levels, against Wednesday's close of 43.73/75. This is the third day in succession that state-run banks have been purchasing dollars. A dealer with a public sector bank here estimated that between $200 million and $300 million may have been bought up by PSBs in the market during the day.

Forwards market: The six-month forwards finished at 1.85 per cent (2.70 per cent) and the 12-month forward at 1.53 per cent (1.70 per cent).

G-Secs: The 10-year benchmark paper breached 6.50 per cent to quote at 6.46 per cent near the close of trading. The paper moved by 30-35 paise after opening at 6.51 per cent yield to maturity. It had ended the previous session at 6.53 per cent. The long term 8.35 per cent 2022 paper gained nearly 70 paise during the session.

Call rates: The inter bank money market closed at 4.80-4.85 per cent levels.

CBLO market: 127 trades aggregating Rs5,069.10 crore were put through in the range of 4.65-4.80 per cent.
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Board for Payment and Settlement systems soon
Mumbai: The RBI Deputy Governor, V. Leeladhar, has said that the proposed Board for Payment and Settlement Systems would be set up in the next few weeks. He also said that the board would function as an autonomous body.

A vision document for 2005-08 released by the Reserve Bank of India earlier suggested hiving off of the 'negotiated dealing system' from the RBI and the central bank establishing a national settlement system. It was also suggested that the central bank should offload its clearing operations to a separate legal entity and focus on being a settlement institution for all clearing systems, apart from its regulatory and supervisory functions.

About 500 banking centres are expected to be linked with the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system by the end of March.
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Federal Bank board reconstituted
Kochi: Subsequent to the order of the Company Law Board, the board of Federal Bank has inducted P. H. Ravikumar, ICICI Bank nominee, as well as Prof A. M. Salim and P. C. Cyriac as independent nominees on the board.

The strength of the board will go up from the current seven to eight when the new Chairman is inducted on May 2, and to nine when the Executive Director, K.S. Harshan, is also given a slot.

The decision to bifurcate the post of Chairman and Managing Director has been kept in abeyance for the moment and the new Chairman, M. Venugopalan, who is currently the Chairman of Bank of India, will take over as the executive Chairman and Managing Director as well, the bank has said.
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United Bank raises Rs.300 crore Tier II capital
Kolkata: United Bank of India (UBI) has raised Rs300 crore by way of Tier II capital through a private placement of bonds.

The bank, which closed the issue seven days earlier than stipulated, expects to meet the Basel II norms and its projected business growth by the end of the next financial year, a press note issued by UBI has mentioned.
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