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Rupee tightens up; bonds lacklustre
Mumbai: The rupee tightened up against the US currency with fresh dollar inflows, closing at 45.78, up from Wednesday's 45.80.

Forwards: In the forward market, the 6-month closed at 0.44 per cent (0.49) and the 12-month ended at 0.43 per cent (0.43).

G-Secs: The 7.37 per cent 9-year-2014 paper closed at Rs102.39 (6.99 per cent YTM) up from the earlier level of at Rs102.35 (7 per cent YTM). The most active paper, 7.49 per cent 12-year 2017 ended trade at Rs101.43 (7.30 per cent YTM), against the earlier close of Rs101.38 (7.31 per cent). The 10.25 per cent-16 year- 2021 paper closed unchanged at Rs125.25 (7.47 per cent YTM).

Call rates: The call rate closed at 5.96 per cent (6.20/40 per cent).

Reverse Repo: In the one-day reverse repo, RBI received and accepted 7 bids amounting to Rs2,005 crore and in the one-day repo auction RBI received and accepted 15 bids amounting to Rs5,175 crore.

CBLO: In the CBLO market, there were 319 trades for Rs10,566.95 crore in the rate range of 5-6.30 per cent.
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RBI says rupee fall is orderly
New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India has termed the depreciation of rupee against US dollar, as 'orderly.' It added that the hike in repo and reverse repo rates in the busy credit policy season would restrict inflation to 5-5.5 per cent during 2005-06 despite the sustained volatility in global oil prices.

RBI Deputy Governor, Dr Rakesh Mohan said "What we are observing is a two way movement in rupee due to the demand and supply in the forex market," on the sidelines of a CII-ADB conference on India-Mekong cooperation here.

Although the rupee has depreciated against the US dollar, it has appreciated against the euro, the pound sterling and other major currencies.

The rupee has depreciated against the dollar to about Rs45.70 a dollar from slightly above Rs43 a few months ago, making exports to US cheaper but imports costlier.

Ruling out RBI's intervention in the forex market to prop up the rupee, Dr Mohan said the central bank intervenes only when there is a disorderly movement.
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ICICI Bank expected to sell 10 per cent stake in Arcil
Mumbai: ICICI Bank is expected to sell 10 per cent stake in Asset Reconstruction Company of India (Arcil), following the government's decision to open up foreign director investment (FDI) route for Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs). The bank holds 29.58 per cent stake in Arcil.

ICICI is expected to sell part of its stake at a premium to private equity investors, which have been keen to pick up stakes in ARCs.

Two other main promoters of Arcil are Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) and State Bank of India (SBI), holding 19.95 per cent stake each.

The government has cleared a proposal to allow 49 per cent foreign direct investment in ARCs.

The 49 per cent cap on FDI is in line with recommendations made by the Reserve Bank of India, though the government had originally mooted a 74 per cent ceiling on FDI in ARCs.
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RBI to issue easier credit norms to exporters in ten days
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans to issue detailed and exhaustive guidelines in 10 days to all scheduled commercial banks, making it mandatory for them to waive off all processing charges while extending credit to functional exporters, officials of the Export Finance Division of RBI said.

The central bank is also finalising similar guidelines for commercial banks so that exporters can have easy access to foreign currency loans.

The Export Finance Division of RBI has already recommended these measures to higher authorities, who have agreed with the recommendations. The decision is being taken so exporters face no difficulties in obtaining commercial credit from scheduled commercial banks.

However RBI is opposed to the idea of setting up of a Dollar Window, as mooted by ASSOCHAM, in all commercial banks because the RBI Act does not have any provision in this regard. Also the apex bank has no intention to increase the existing ceiling of 12 per cent for export credit to exporters, from commercial banks' total credit extension limit, to 15 per cent.
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Bankers' conference begins today
Kolkata: The two-day bankers' conference 'Bancon' begins today. UCO Bank chairman and managing director V Sridar said the theme of the conference would be 'Indian banking: opportunities at the bottom of the pyramid'.

Apart from Finance Minister P Chidambaram, other speakers include RBI Governor Y V Reddy, IDBI chairman and managing director V P Shetty and a host of CMDs of several commercial banks.

The conference would deal with issues pertaining to the industry like meeting Basel II capital requirement norms said bankers.
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IBA to lay down fair practices code
Mumbai: The Indian Banks' Association (IBA), the apex body of bankers, is coming up with a comprehensive fair practices code to serve as a base document for banking standards in the country.

HN Sinor, chief executive of IBA, told reporters that the Banking Code and Standards Board of India would be set up consisting of five members and would be headquartered in Mumbai. He said participation in the code would be voluntary, adding that the guidelines would have to be approved by the respective boards of the banks.

The board would appoint a CEO, who would be assisted by a team of relationship managers and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would fund the project, he said.

The board would have one representative from customers.
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