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Rupee firms up - securities rally
Mumbai: The rupee gained against the US dollar closed the day at 43.67, up from Thursday's close at 43.68/69.

Forwards market: The six-month premia closed at 1.13 per cent (1.13) and the 12-month closed at 1.12 per cent (1.13).

G-Secs: The 7.55-5 year-2010 paper closed at Rs103.75 (6.60 per cent YTM), up from Thursday's Rs103.55 (6.69 per cent YTM). The 8.07-12 year-2017 paper saw a rise of 45 paise closing at Rs108.30 (7.01 per cent YTM). It had closed at Rs108.15 (7.03 pc YTM) on Thursday.

Call rates: The inter bank rates remained steady at 4.95-5.05 per cent.

CBLO market: 146 trades aggregating Rs5,731.70 crore in 4.50 to 5.19 range were realised.
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SBI celebrates 200 years of operations
Mumbai: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambabam will flag-off the bi-centenary celebrations of the country's largest bank, the State Bank of India, in Mumbai today.

Exactly 200 years back the Bank of Calcutta came into existence, in order to cater to the business interests of the English East India Company. Three years later in 1809 it was renamed the Bank of Bengal. In the 1840s other provincial banks were also set up, which included the Bank of Bombay and the Bank of Madras.

In 1921, the three banks were merged into one super bank, the Imperial Bank which, with the end of the British Empire, became the State Bank of India. A separate Act of Parliament established the SBI in 1954. The Imperial Bank had some very prominent members on its board, one of them being JRD Tata.

SBI along with its seven associate banks have over 9000 branches dotting every part of the country and its subsidiaries SBI Life and SBI Mutual Fund are one of the countries strongest financial institutions. The bank has operations in more than two dozen countries.
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SBI MF to launch the Magnum Multicap Fund
Mumbai: The SBI Mutual Fund has filed an offer document with Sebi for its new scheme, the Magnum Multicap Fund.

The scheme intends to invest at least 70 per cent of its investments in equity stocks at all times with the provision that it can also invest up to a maximum of 50 per cent of the equity portfolio in derivative instruments.

The exposure to derivatives would be in addition to the equity exposure in the scheme and the scheme's trading in derivatives shall be restricted to hedging and portfolio balancing purposes only, according to the offer document.

The scheme would be benchmarked against the BSE 100 Index and will aim to provide investors with opportunities for long-term growth in capital along with the liquidity of an open-ended scheme through an active management of investments in a diversified basket of equity stocks spanning the entire market capitalization spectrum and in debt and money market instruments.

Sandip Sabharwal has been named as the Fund Manager for the scheme.
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RBI: 48 companies sought approval for ECBs
Mumbai: United Spirits, McDowell, Phipson Distillery, Mercator Lines and Bharat Forge are among the 48 companies that sought RBI s permission to raise money abroad in April 2005.

These companies proposed to raise funds through external commercial borrowings and foreign currency convertible debentures under the automatic approval channel, according to figures from the RBI Web site. A total of 46 companies sought approval through the automatic route, while two companies applied for approvals.

All three distilleries sought permission to raise funds for new projects.

While McDowell sought permission to raise $45 million, and Phipson for $ 60 million, United Spirits sought to raise $70 million over a period of four years. Another proposed big borrowing was by Mercator Lines, which sought to raise $60 million.
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PSBs: No dilution of Govt. stake below 51 per cent
New Delhi: Public sector banks (PSBs) in which the Government's stake is pegged at a little over 51 per cent, will not be allowed to go in for further public issues to raise capital, the Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, has said.

"There would be no further public issues. There are other options for mobilising capital in such cases like Tier II capital," Chidambaram told reporters, after his meeting with the chiefs of public sectors banks.

He was replying to a query on how banks with Government stake of little over 51 per cent could mobilise capital if they were not allowed to lower the Government stake to below 51 per cent.

The Finance Minister's stance will imply that banks such as Dena Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and even Vijaya Bank may not be allowed to come up with further public issues to raise capital.

While the Government's stake in Oriental Bank is currently pegged at 51.07 per cent, its holding in Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank is 51.19 per cent and 53.87 per cent, respectively.

There are at least four other banks that are not borderline cases, but where the Government's holding is below 60 per cent. These include Punjab National Bank (57.8 per cent), IDBI Bank (58.48), Corporation Bank (57.17) and Allahabad Bank (55.23).

Chidambaram made it clear that there is no intent on the part of the Government to revive the legislation on reducing the Government equity in banks to 33 per cent.

Chidambaram also said all public sector banks would sign a memorandum of understanding with the Finance Ministry by the first week of July. The MoU system, which is already there for central public sector undertakings, will enable the Government to review the performance of public sector banks at the end of the year.

The parameters considered for the MoU include return on assets, return on net worth, return on equity, capital adequacy ratio and reduction of non-performing assets etc.
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Banking Results: TMB
TMB declares Rs.174 crore in operating profit
Madurai: The Tuticorin-based Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) has reported an operating profit of Rs174.21 crore for the year ended March 31, 2005, up from Rs169.89 crore during the previous year. The bank has also proposed a dividend of 250 per cent (Rs25), according to a bank release.

While the net profit was up at Rs82.35 crore (Rs 80.68 crore) the business volume stood at Rs7,453 crore, up by 14.34 per cent. While deposits increased to Rs4,826.88 crore, advances rose to Rs2,626.24 crore, with CD ratio improving from 47.99 per cent to 54.40 per cent.

The net NPAs for the year have been brought down from five per cent to 2.95 per cent.

The merchant trading turnover of the bank's forex operations have increased to Rs2,740 crore.
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