Rupee range bound — G-Secs fall
Mumbai: The rupee closed at 43.75/76 against the dollar on Wednesday, as compared to its closing of Rs43.78 on Tuesday.

Forwards market: The 12-month premium closed at 1.48 per cent (1.50 per cent) and the 6-month premium closed at 1.77 per cent (1.86 per cent).

G-Secs: The bond prices fell by around 60 paise. The 10-year 7.38 per cent 2015 benchmark paper closed at Rs104.1050 (6.82 per cent YTM). It had opened at Rs104.60 (6.76/77 per cent YTM).

CBLO market: 173 trades aggregating Rs5,921.10 crore went through in the rate range of 4.42 to 5.00 per cent.

Call rates: closed at 4.75/80 per cent.
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TCS to supply software systems for Dubai financial exchange
Abu Dhabi: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has signed a contract under which it will supply software systems to support clearing and settlement services for the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX).

DIFX plans to open for trading on September 26,the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Clearing at DIFX will take place through a central counterparty (CCP) system, under which DIFX Clearing House will guarantee that trades between its members will be honoured.

DIFX is located in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), a financial free zone that opened for business in September 2004.

As it progresses towards its launch, DIFX is holding detailed discussions with potential members and issuers and is applying to the independent regulator of financial services inside DIFC, the Dubai Financial Services Authority, for licences to operate as an exchange and run a clearing system.
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Centurion Bank GDR issue size swells to $80 mn
Mumbai: The Centurion Bank has exercised the entire greenshoe option of $10 million for their GDR issue, taking its total issue size to $80 million.

After adjusting for the GDR issue, the net worth of the bank will be in excess of Rs500 crore and the capital adequacy ratio will be above 20 per cent, as on December 31, 2004, said a press release from the bank. The GDRs are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

On March 22, Centurion priced its GDR issue at $4.80 per GDR. Each GDR represents 15 local shares of the bank. The offering attracted strong demand from diverse investors across Asia and Europe.

Citigroup acted as the sole book-runner and lead manager to the GDR offering.
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Nabard borrowings to cross Rs14,000 crore for current fiscal
Mumbai: Nabard is targeting disbursement of Rs9,000 crore in investment credit and Rs12,000 crore in production credit during 2005-06, according to its Chairperson, Ms Ranjana Kumar.
Investment credit is given for capital expenses and production credit for meeting farm expenses.

During 2004-05, Nabard disbursed Rs 8,577.46 crore as refinance for investment credit, recording a growth of 12.86 per cent over the previous year's figure of Rs7,605.29 crore.

Refinance for production credit constituted the sanctioning of Rs10,891.10 crore to co-operatives and RRBs in 2004-05 for both seasonal agricultural operations (crop loans) and others, against Rs9,864.48 crore in 2003-04. Utilisation during the period stood at Rs8,541.85 crore against Rs6,432.78 crore during the corresponding previous period.

Nabard is expected to go in for market borrowings in excess of Rs14,000 crore during the current fiscal, said Ms Ranjana Kumar. During 2004-05, Nabard mobilised Rs10,636.50 crore from the markets through capital gains bonds, priority sector bonds, non-priority sector bonds and corporate borrowings, compared to Rs7,861 crore earlier.

Nabard is expected to report a profit of Rs1,300 crore for 2004-05 against Rs1,460 crore in 2003-04. The lower profits can be attributed to its decision permitting pre-payments and resetting of outstanding investment credit refinance and allowing flexible limits to SCBs for sanction of short-term loans and reduction in refinance interest rates in the beginning of the year.

During 2004-05, around 3.7 lakh new self-help groups (SHGs) were credit-linked with banks against the target of 1.85 lakh set by the Government. Nabard provided refinance aggregating Rs1,006 crore, against Rs705.44 crore for 2003-04, for supporting 2,16,051 SHGs. The cumulative number of SHGs credit-linked with banks increased to 14,26,354 as on March 2005 from 10,79,091 as on March 2004.

Cumulative bank loan disbursement and refinance support aggregated Rs5,674 crore and Rs3,130 crore respectively. The number of poor families benefited through SHGs increased to over 2.14 crore from 1.67 crore as on March 31, 2004.
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