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UTI Mutual Fund: Initial talks held on future ownership pattern
New Delhi: The Government has held a meeting with the LIC, SBI, Punjab National Bank, and Bank of Baroda, the four institutional sponsors of the UTI Mutual Fund, in order to arrive at a new ownership pattern for the country's oldest mutual fund.

According to reports, the meeting was called primarily to assess the price that each of the sponsors would be willing to offer to take up the sole responsibility of running the fund.

However, no details of the discussions were forthcoming. "It was only a preliminary meeting. Nothing has been decided," said A.K. Shukla, Chairman, LIC told reporters.

Ashok Jha, Secretary (Economic Affairs), U.K. Sinha, Joint Secretary (Capital Markets), A.K. Purwar, Chairman, SBI, A.K. Khandelwal, CMD, Bank of Baroda, and C.P. Swarnkar, Executive Director of PNB attended the meeting.
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IDBI Capital Market Services to enter retail broking
Kolkata: IDBI Capital Market Services Ltd (ICMS), a subsidiary of IDBI, which has been catering mainly to institutional clients, is now set to enter retail broking services.

According to V.P. Shetty, Chairman of IDBI, the company has zeroed in on retail services as part of its overall growth plans and expects the retail segment to provide it with adequate growth opportunities in the coming days.

The past fiscal had posed big challenges for ICMS, mainly because of developments taking place in the Government securities arena where ICMS is a major player in its capacity as a primary dealer (PD).

ICMS, a member of both the NSE and the BSE, currently claims to present "quality trade execution" to institutional clients. It is now setting up a portal, which will enable it to effectively diversify into the retail space. The portal is being tested before a formal launch takes place, ICMS officials said.

The company will continue to offer multiple services, including client asset management and distribution of financial products. ICMS will also step up efforts to act as an arranger in the private placement market for wholesale debt. It currently manages a substantial amount for various provident and pension funds.
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Reliance Capital and REL refute market rumours on acquisitions
Mumbai: The Anil D Ambani Enterprises group through separate notices from Reliance Capital and Reliance Energy to the BSE has clarified that it has no plans to acquire companies whose names have been floating in the market.

The group in its notice to the stock exchange said that it has no plans to acquire Crest Animation, Saregama, Shringar Cinema, IndusInd Bank and Jyoti Structures. The notices have quelled all the rumours floating in the market over its aggressive acquisition plans.

Stock prices of all these companies have been soaring on rumours that Reliance Capital and Reliance Energy will take stake in these companies similar to the announcement made in Adlabs. After yesterday's announcement the stock price of all these companies fell.

The stock price of music company Saregama rose 20 per cent in the last one week. Similarly, Crest Animation rose 28.40 per cent in a week's time. Shringar Cinema, which is into film production and multiplexes, rose 7.19 per cent. IndusInd Bank rose 7.19 per cent last week. Jyoti structures rose 15 per cent in the last one week.
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Indiabulls Q1 net zooms up 639 per cent
Mumbai: Indiabulls Financial Services announced a massive 639 per cent jump in its net profit for the first quarter ended June 30, 2005.

On a consolidated basis, the company recorded a net profit of Rs40.9 crore, compared to Rs5.5 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. For Q1, the total revenues rose by 326% to Rs98.6 crore from Rs23.1 crore. Margins have also improved during the quarter to 69.6% from 42%. The company recorded an earning per share of Rs3.01 as against Rs0.49 for the quarter last year.

The impressive performance comes on the back of the rapid growth of the financial markets in India. 65% of the company's revenue came from the broking business, while the remaining 35% came from loans (consumer financing) and distribution (mutual fund and insurance) businesses.
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