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Chidambaram: FII inflows here to stay
New Delhi: Finance minister, P. Chidambaram, made light of fears of a possible large-scale pullout of portfolio investments by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and expressed confidence that large FII inflows would continue.

"If there are inflows (from FIIs), there will be periods where there are outflows. We must be able to take both inflows and outflows in stride. I am confident that we would continue to get large FII inflows," Chidambaram said in his address at the Assocham annual session here.

The finance minister said that FII investment so far in the current fiscal stood at US$4.3bn. For the calendar year 2005, the Minister said that the FII investments level is already US$8.2bn.

On foreign direct investment (FDI), the finance minister said that the FDI inflows during April-August 2005 stood at US$1.909bn. This, he said, represented a 20 per cent jump over the level recorded in the same period last year and the highest since 2000-01.

For the January-August 2005, Chidambaram said that FDI inflows stood at US$2.573bn, a 14 per cent growth over last year and the highest since 2000-01. "The flip side of course is this is a fraction of what China attracts and poised to attract in future too," he said.
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Sebi to make markets safer for investors
Chennai: The Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) intends to take steps to make the Indian markets more attractive and safe. The measures being considered will include allowing short selling of equities by institutional investors, bringing mutual fund intermediaries under its purview and hiking position limits in derivatives market.

While addressing the 33rd national convention of company secretaries, Sebi chairman M Damodaran said short selling by institutions would be allowed before the end of this calendar year. He said Sebi would remove the dichotomies that exist in India.

He added that other steps such as securities lending and borrowing and physical settlement of transactions, instead of cash settlement, would also be implemented simultaneously.

Damodaran said Sebi would also bring all mutual fund intermediaries, including agents and brokers, under its regulatory ambit to protect the interests of investors. Some mutual funds have already removed some agents from their list following the Sebi move, he added.

Sebi said it would also shorten the timeline for companies to raise funds from the domestic markets through the IPO route without "lowering the bar" or diluting the existing regulations, he said.

On the derivatives market, Damodaran said the position limit would be increased to make both futures and options popular.
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HDFC savings plan gets highest credit risk rating from ICRA
Kolkata: ICRA has assigned a credit risk rating of `mfA1+' to HDFC Cash Management Fund - Savings Plan, a rating that denotes the highest credit quality short-term rating assigned by the agency to debt funds.

The scale, an ICRA press note states, applies to funds with weighted average maturity up to one year. The rated fund "carries the lowest credit risk, similar to that associated with short-term debt obligations rated in the highest-credit-quality category," the agency has mentioned.

The HDFC Cash Management Fund - Savings Plan has Rs 2,870 crore under management as on September 30.
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SBI MF hikes stake in Crompton Greaves
Kolkata: SBI Mutual Fund has acquired 1.25 lakh shares of Crompton Greaves Ltd from the market, accounting for 0.24 per cent of the company's paid-up equity.

The acquisition has been carried out through various schemes managed by SBI MF. The fund has informed NSE that its holding in Crompton Greaves now stands at about 5.1 per cent after the latest move.
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SBI to raise Rs.3,300 crore through bonds issue
Mumbai: The State Bank of India (SBI) will raise Rs3,300 crore through domestic and overseas issue of five-year unsecured bonds on private placement basis by end of this quarter or early next quarter.

The funds would be raised to shore up the bank's capital to meet its growing lending activity. Interest rates and timing of the bond issue would be decided later.

The bank's retail and agriculture lending have been growing more than 30 per cent while the capital to asset ratio has come down to 11.63 per cent as on June 30, 2005.
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Jessop's Rs.50 crore rights issue to open on Oct. 26
Kolkata: Jessop & Co. controlled by the Ruia group is coming out with an Rs50 crore rights issue on October 26. The BIFR has exempted the issue from getting a clearance by SEBI. The rights issue will stay open till November 1.

Jessop would float the rights issue to infuse Rs50 crore capital to strengthen its balance sheet and become a positive net worth company to move out of the BIFR net.

The rights issue will be at par and is to be issued at the rate of 5.5:1 ratio.

The Ruias currently hold 72 per cent in the company, the government 27 per cent and retail investors one per cent.
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