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Rupee changes little
Mumbai: The rupee was hovering near one-month lows on Friday, with concerns about a ballooning trade deficit and the RBI'S dollar-buying intervention weighing on sentiment.

The Reserve Bank of India, which stayed away from the currency market between April and June, resumed its intervention last month after China's decision to revalue the Yuan briefly lifted the rupee to 43.12.

Market sources estimate that the RBI may have bought nearly $5 billion in the past two weeks.

At 9:10 a.m. the rupee was quoted at 43.5850/5950 per dollar, barely changed from the previous close of 43.5925/5975, the lowest finish since July 8.

Call rates: Inter bank rates opened higher on Friday at 5.00-5.10 per cent against its previous day's 4.80-5.00.
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RBI to get more powers for regulating bond market
New Delhi: In a major move towards reforming the debt market, which trades securities worth over Rs20,00,000 crore annually, the Centre is all set to grant more powers to the Reserve Bank of India for regulating and managing Government securities and derivatives.

The bills to amend the RBI Act and Banking Regulations Act, introduced in Parliament in the budget session and referred to the Standing Committee of Finance, will now incorporate provisions that would empower RBI to regulate all types of derivatives on G-Secs.

While empowering RBI in the debt market, the role of the market regulator SEBI in regulating derivatives like interest rate futures is likely to end.

The move aims at ensuring that there is no overlap in regulations on G-Secs and derivatives even if some of them are now traded in the National Stock Exchange, which comes under SEBI's ambit.

The move would enable RBI to launch interest rate futures, options and swaps that could be used by banks, insurance companies and bond dealers to hedge risks of sudden interest rate fluctuation. Though the equities markets have an active derivative market, the debt market is yet to have derivatives.
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Fiscal Q1: India Inc. raises Rs.11,979 crore via bonds
New Delhi: India Inc has raised 23 per cent more in debt at Rs11,979 crore with tenures of a year and more in the first quarter (Q1) of this fiscal, as compared to Rs9,710 crore a year ago, according to Prime Database.

HDFC was the highest mobiliser through private debt placement during April-June 2005 at Rs1,625 crore, followed by Indian Oil (Rs1,000 crore), Rural Electricity Corporation (Rs986 crore), Food Corporation of India (Rs977 crore), National Housing Bank (Rs850 crore) and IDBI (Rs805 crore).

Industry-wise, financial services dominated the market by raising Rs8,727 crore or 73 per cent of the total amount, Prime Database has said. The oil exploration and the food and food processing sectors had 8 per cent share each, raising Rs1,000 crore and Rs977 crore respectively, followed by the power sector at Rs420 crore.

The sector that witnessed major decline were the state level undertakings, whose borrowings through bonds have come down by 82 per cent to Rs220 crore from Rs1,248 crore a year ago.

The private sector also witnessed a 4 per cent decline in mobilisation from Rs2,837 crore to Rs2,721 crore. Leading mobilisers in this category were Mahindra & Mahindra Financial (Rs520 crore) and Citicorp Finance (Rs450 crore).

Debt raised by PSUs surged by a whopping 400 per cent at Rs2,153 crore in the first quarter of 2005-06 from Rs428 crore in the year ago quarter. Government organisations and financial institutions together mobilised 78 per cent of the total amount raised through bonds in April-June 2005 compared with 71 per cent in the previous year period.

According to Prime Database, in addition to the above one-year tenure mobilisation of Rs11,979 crore, a significant additional amount of Rs2,994 crore was raised through 88 deals of less than one-year tenure debentures by 19 issuers.

Moreover, another Rs2,160 crore was raised through pass-through certificates during the first quarter of this fiscal.
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Karur Vysya to launch mobile banking from October
Coimbatore: Karur Vysya Bank said on Friday said it would introduce mobile banking by October end. According to the bank, the modalities for this concept were being worked out and all the customers would be able to operate their account through their cell phones, once the facility was introduced.

KVB has achieved 100 per cent computerisation, officials said, with 97 per cent of the bank's business being brought under the core banking solution, giving customers anywhere banking convenience.

The bank was targeting deposits of Rs8,000 crore and advances of Rs5,500 crore by the end of this fiscal. Officials said that the bank's strategy to mobilise low cost deposits and focus on retail financial would help the bank in maintaining a robust net interest margin.

For the quarter ended June 2005, the bank has posted a net profit of Rs37.62 crore recording a 10 per cent increase over the same period last year, he said.

The bank has posted a profit of Rs105.34 crore and has disbursed 100 per cent dividend for the second year in succession.
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