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Rupee unchanged - bond prices fall
Mumbai: The rupee was unchanged against the greenback on Friday closing at 45.08, the same level as Thursday.

Forwards market: The 12-month premia closed at 0.42 per cent (0.46) and 6-month at 0.42 per cent (0.5).

G-Secs: The 10.25-16 year-2021 paper closed at Rs125.55 (7.45 per cent YTM), lower than Thursday's Rs125.62 (7.44 per cent YTM). The 7.37-9 year-2014 paper ended at Rs102.54 (6.97 per cent YTM), slightly lower than Thursday's close at Rs102.57 (6.96 per cent YTM). The 7.38 - 10 year-2015 paper was dealt at Rs102.17 (7.07 per cent YTM).

Call rates: The inter bank rates closed at 5.25-5.30 per cent.

Reverse Repo: In the three-day auction under the liquidity adjustment facility, the RBI received and accepted 38 bids amounting to Rs20,840 crore.

CBLO market: There were 310 trades for Rs12, 837.55 crore in the rate range of 5.09-5.56 per cent.
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Orchid Pharma raises US$75mn through GDRs and FCCBs
Mumbai: Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd has raised US$75mn through issue of 8,650,000 GDRs aggregating US$37.5mn and US$35mn through the issue of convertible bonds. The GDRs were priced at US$4.34 each.

The zero-coupon convertible bonds have a tenor of five years and are convertible into equity shares at a premium of 25 per cent. The GDRs and the convertible bonds will be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. Citigroup acted as the sole book runner and lead manager to this transaction.

Shares of Orchid Chemicals were last traded on BSE at Rs 201.55, down by 4.50 per cent.
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UCO Bank waives processing fee on home, car loans
Hyderabad: The UCO Bank has announced a complete waiver of processing charges on home and car loans till January 31, 2006.
In a press release here, the bank said the waiver of processing/administrative charges would be applicable for its housing loan product `UCO Shelter' and car loan product `UCO Car.'

Apart from a maximum repayment period of 25 years on housing loans, the bank also offers a holiday period of up to 18 months for repayment. It is offering loans of up to Rs7.5 lakh for new cars and up to Rs2.5 lakh for pre-owned vehicles with a maximum repayment period of 60 months.
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SBI Life launches new single premium plan
Mumbai: SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd has launched "Dhana Vriddhi" - an investment-cum-protection life insurance policy - that offers guaranteed additions of 5.75 per cent on sum assured, compounded annually.

Dhana Vriddhi is a non-participating Single Premium plan and is available for a fixed period of five years. The rate of return can range from 5.86 per cent to 6.29 per cent on gross single premium depending upon the amount of sum assured.

The plan is also available for non-resident Indians.

In addition to guaranteed returns, Dhana Vriddhi comes with features that include single premium payment mode, high value rebates for sum assured above Rs 5 lakh, no medicals and an increasing life cover with each passing year.

It will be open for initial subscription till December 15.
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Bajaj Allianz launches new HealthCare Plan
Mumbai: Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Ltd has launched a three-year, 6-in-1 HealthCare Plan, which is an insurance plan providing comprehensive health cover with life insurance benefit.

According to a press release, the premium in this plan remains the same for three years without change, unlike other mediclaim policies where the premium increases annually.

This 6-in-1 HealthCare plan includes life cover, hospital cash, surgical benefit, post hospitalisation benefit, critical illness cover and accidental permanent disability (partial and total). The benefits of this plan would be available for hospitalisation in any registered hospital with 15 beds across the country.

The company said that this new HealthCare plan offers a long-term affordable policy that not only protects one from huge medical expenses but also provides total solution against probable health hazards.
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SBI launches pre-paid cards on mChq platform
Mumbai: The State Bank of India, jointly with Visa International, has launched pre-paid cards on the mChq platform, which is a mobile-to-mobile payment option.

This card will be first introduced for Airtel subscribers at IIT-Bombay, Powai, and will enable students, faculty and staff of IIT and those living in nearby areas to pay for their purchases with their Airtel mobile phones, said a press release from the bank.

The initiative enables merchants to use the mobile phone as a secure point of sale (POS) terminal and cardholders to use their handsets as payment mechanism. The service will be available to Airtel subscribers who have an SBI pre-paid card. SBI is expected to roll out this service to other IIT campuses in the coming months, the press release said.
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Banking and Finance cos. results: Sundaram Finance, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, United Bank

Sundaram Finance net up 52 per cent in Q2
Sundaram Finance Ltd has reported a net profit of Rs23.25 crore for the second quarter of the current year, up 52 per cent from Rs15.28 crore in the corresponding period last year. But, the company has pointed out that the results of the two quarters are not comparable because the results of the quarter under review includes the performance of the erstwhile Lakshmi General Finance Ltd, which was merged with Sundaram Finance earlier this year.

Sundaram Finance's income from operations and other income increased Rs133.79 crore against Rs90.56 crore previously.

The company is almost entirely into vehicle financing.

Bank of Baroda Q2 net rises 21 per cent
Bank of Baroda's net profit has increased 21.45 per cent to touch Rs259.07 crore in the quarter ended September 30, against Rs213.31 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, due to increase in lending. However, other income decreased due to lower profits from sale of investments.

The total income was Rs2,003.59 crore (Rs1,907.61 crore). Net interest income increased to Rs781.86 crore (Rs688.29 crore). Other income decreased to Rs309.55 crore (Rs359.47 crore). Total expenditure was at Rs 1,508.27 crore (Rs1,357.70 crore).

Capital adequacy ratio was at 12.79 per cent (11.99 per cent). The ratio of net non-performing assets to total assets declined to 1.13 per cent (2.27 per cent).

For the six-month period ended September 30, 2005, the bank reported a net profit of Rs416.01 crore, down 17.83 per cent from Rs506.30 crore, due to lower profits from sale of investments.

Net interest income rose to Rs1,540.46 crore (Rs1,371.33 crore). Other income fell to Rs518.32 crore (Rs754.06 crore).

Total deposits inched up by 9.59 per cent to Rs86,171.71 crore from Rs78,633.91 crore. Total advances increased by 30.87 per cent to Rs48,952.32 crore from Rs37,403.92 crore.

BoB opened a branch in Leicester, UK, and a representative office in Bangkok, in August 2005.

The bank is awaiting permission for opening branches include Houston in US, Hong Kong, Maldives and Bangladesh. It has also got RBI approval for fully owned subsidiaries in Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

Bank of Baroda is planning a second public issue of over 7 crore equity shares to raise around Rs1,500 crore. The bank filed the prospects with the Securities and Exchange board of India on October 6.

Bank of India Q2 net up 167 per cent
Higher income has enabled Bank of India to report a 166.81 per cent rise in net profit at Rs132.18 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2005 against Rs49.54 crore last year.

The profit for the corresponding previous quarter was lower on account of provisioning made for trading losses in government securities.

Total income was at Rs1,964.51 crore (Rs1,781.74 crore). Other income increased to Rs303.12 crore (Rs259.76 crore). Total expenditure increased to Rs1,634.41 crore (1,390.55 crore).

Capital adequacy ratio was 11.4 per cent (13.05 per cent). Yield on advances increased to 7.36 per cent from 7.05 per cent.
The ratio of NPA declined to 2.23 per cent (4.17 per cent). Global deposits grew to Rs85,856 crore (Rs75,637 crore), an increase of 13.51 per cent. Total advances increased by 20.6 per cent to touch Rs61,141 crore (Rs50,698 crore).

Shares of low cost deposits (current account and savings account) improved to 40.61 per cent (38.62 per cent).

For the six months ended September 30, 2005, BoI reported net profit of Rs303.92 crore, an increase of 43.2 per cent. Net interest income increased by 0.31 per cent and fee-based income increased by 16.44 per cent.

Retail credit recorded a healthy growth of 28.69 per cent on year on-year basis and reached Rs11,859 crore from Rs9,215 crore.
The bank's overseas business accounts for 20 per cent of its business. The bank has set up a hub at Singapore to network all foreign branches. Shares of Bank of India closed at Rs 102.30 on the BSE, an increase of 1.19 per cent from Rs 101.10.

United Bank may adjust losses against capital
The United Bank of India (UBI) has mooted a proposal to adjust its losses against capital. It has requested the Reserve Bank of India to allow it to go ahead with the recast.

UBI, which recorded accumulated losses of Rs278 crore as on March 2005, suggested that the proposal would in due course help it to come out with an initial public offer.

On Friday, UBI announced that its profitability has been affected due to factors such as increase in wage bill (following a recent salary revision) and additional provisioning requirement for NPAs. In addition, depreciation on investments remained a critical issue.

Net profit has increased marginally to Rs104 crore during April-September 2005 as against Rs103 crore during April-September 2004. Total business has increased by 17 per cent from Rs33,330 crore (as on September 30, 2004) to Rs38,995 crore as at the end of the quarter ended September, 2005. Deposits grew by 9.18 per cent to Rs26,003 crore (Rs23,816 crore).

Net advances increased by Rs3,475 crore to Rs12,992 crore, a 37-per cent increase. Cost of deposits declined to 4.93 per cent during the half-year compared to 5.19 per cent during the corresponding period last year.

UBI has reported a dip in the investment portfolio from Rs14,115 crores as on September 30, 2004 to Rs13,936 crores as at the end of the last quarter.

The bank has recorded fresh NPAs in various sectors, including tea, which generated NPAs of Rs21 crores in recent times.
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