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Rupee declines - securities rise
Mumbai: The rupee further depreciated against the dollar on Monday closing the day at 46.3250/3350, down from Friday's close at 46.18.

Forwards market: The six-month premia closed at 0.68 per cent (0.80) and the 12-month at 0.57 per cent (0.68).

G-Secs: The 10.25-16 year-2021 paper closed at Rs126.11 (7.39 per cent YTM), higher than Friday's Rs 125.93 (7.41 per cent YTM). The 7.49-12 year-2017 paper ended at Rs102.10 (7.21 per cent YTM), up from Friday's close at Rs101.995 (7.23 per cent YTM).

Call rate: The inter bank rates closed at 5.20-30 per cent.

Reverse repo: In the first three-day auction, the Reserve Bank of India received and accepted 19 bids amounting to Rs15,320 crore. In the second auction, it received and accepted 27 bids for Rs5,315 crore.

CBLO market: There were 259 trades for Rs 11,252.15 crore in the range of 5.16-5.35 per cent.
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Chidambaram: Weakening rupee is "dollar impacted"
New Delhi: The finance minister, P. Chidambaram said Monday that the Government and the Reserve Bank of India were keeping a close watch on the rupee movement.

Chidambaram termed the weakening of the rupee as a "dollar-impacted change". "It is basically a dollar-impacted change. We are watching the situation. I am in touch with the RBI Governor, Dr Y.V. Reddy,'' Chidambaram told presspersons here on Monday.

The rupee has been sliding against the dollar in recent days and closed at Rs46.33 to a dollar on Monday against Friday's close of Rs46.13.
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State Bank of Travancore launches no-frills savings bank account
Thiruvananthapuram: The State Bank of Travancore (SBT) has launched a no-frills "Special savings bank account" that aims at providing banking facilities to the masses. The account-holders under this scheme will not be eligible for ATM cards, cheque books and Internet banking facilities, according to a statement from the bank.

There is no restriction on minimum balance for opening the account.

Individuals can open this account in their own or in joint names. Accounts in the names of minors can also be opened under the scheme.
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Lahiri panel recommends negative list of FIIs
New Delhi: The Lahiri panel has recommended a negative list of tax havens, in order to check the inflow of bad money into the Indian capital market through the FII route. The expert panel, headed by the chief economic adviser Ashok Lahiri submitted its report to the finance ministry on Monday.

In its recommendations the panel said, "It must be ensured that only clean money through recognised banking channels is permitted in the securities market."

"There should be a negative list of tax havens, whereby entities registered in these jurisdictions are prevented from attaining the FII status," it said in a report titled 'Encouraging FII flows and checking the vulnerability of capital markets to speculative flow'.

It fears that inflow of funds through unrecognised banking channels into the securities market could be laundered money. It, therefore, said the norms on participatory notes issued by FIIs should continue and Sebi should have full powers to obtain information regarding the final holder and beneficiaries or of any holder at any point of time in case of any investigation or surveillance action.

Though FII investment in India has shown a phenomenal growth at about US$9.2bn, it said non-availability of good quality equities in adequate volume appears to be impeding FII flows. FII flows will be encouraged by greater volume of issuance of securities in the Indian market. "This would be assisted by PSU divestment," it said.

The Lahiri panel also pitched for allowing domestic pension funds in equity market, which would "augment the diversity of views on the market."

"This would also end the anomaly of the existing situation where foreign pension funds are extensive users of Indian equity market but domestic pension funds are not," it said.

Regarding the ceiling on FII and sub-accounts, the panel said, "The existing limit of 10 per cent holding in any one firm by one FII may be extended to cover the sum of the holdings of any one FII and all such sub-accounts coming under that FII, which have common beneficial ownership as the FII."
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SpiceJet FCCB issue raises US$80mn
New Delhi: SpiceJet Ltd on Monday said that it has raised US$80mn through the issue of Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) in the international market. The funds raised from this issue would be utilised to part-finance the fleet expansion plans, stated a release.

SpiceJet has placed orders for 20 Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

The subscribers to the bond issue include Goldman Sachs and Istithmar, the private equity arm held by the Government of Dubai. The bondholders have the option to convert the bonds into shares at a substantial premium over Monday's closing price of its share at the Bombay Stock Exchange.

SpiceJet said that the bonds would be listed at Luxemburg Stock Exchange.
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