Rupee up — securities fall
Mumbai: The rupee gained against the US dollar on Monday ending at 45.03 at a two-month high, 31 paise up from Friday's close of 45.34. It is difficult to predict the course of the rupee, said the chief forex dealer of a private bank. "The rupee has lost sharply against the dollar in the last few weeks and gained at almost the same speed. It is difficult to say how it will move now," he said.

Forwards: The forward premia were also sharply higher with the six-month closing at 1.3 per cent (1.1 per cent) and the one-year at 0.95 per cent (0.82 per cent).

G-Secs : The 8.07-12 year-2017 paper opened at Rs 106.40 (7.22 per cent YTM) and ended at Rs106.34 (7.227 per cent YTM), down from Friday's close at Rs106.40 (7.21 per cent YTM). The 10.25-16 year-2021 paper opened at Rs 126.17 (7.38 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs126.08 (7.39 per cent YTM), lower than Friday's Rs126.12 (7.38 per cent).

Call rates: The call rate closed at 6.25-30 per cent and deals were done even at 7 per cent (6.25-6.40). In the first one-day reverse repo auction, the RBI received and accepted two bids amounting to Rs225 crore and nine bids for Rs5,240 crore in the repo auction.

Reverse Repo: In the second one-day reverse repo auction, RBI received one bid for Rs300 crore and three bids for Rs220 crore in the repo auction.

CBLO: In the CBLO market, there were 325 trades for Rs15,232.35 crore in the range of 5.91-6.30 per cent.
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BoB not to raise lending rates
Mumbai: Bank of Baroda (BoB) does not have any plans to increase lending rates, despite an upward movement in interest rates and signs of pressure on liquidity in the banking system.

Anil Khandelwal, chairman, BoB said "Interest rates are hardening and liquidity is under pressure. There is bound to be some pressure when large amount of funds would flow out of system following redemption of IMDs (India Millennium Deposits) by the end of this month," he said.

However he added that the economy is showing robust growth and the performance of BoB is on track in the current quarter.
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ICICI Bank sets aside Rs.1,200 crore towards insurance venture
Mumbai: ICICI Bank has set aside nearly Rs1,200 crore of the proceeds from its recent public issue for its life insurance venture, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.

ICICI Prudential's equity base currently stands at Rs1,085 crore with the ICICI Bank and UK-based Prudential Plc holding 74 per cent and 26 per cent stakes, respectively.
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ICICI Bank sets aside Rs.1,200 crore towards insurance venture
Mumbai: ICICI Bank has set aside nearly Rs1,200 crore of the proceeds from its recent public issue for its life insurance venture, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.

ICICI Prudential's equity base currently stands at Rs1,085 crore with the ICICI Bank and UK-based Prudential Plc holding 74 per cent and 26 per cent stakes, respectively.
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Kotak Mahindra to expand wealth management buisness
Mumbai: The Kotak Mahindra Bank, the second largest player in wealth management, is planning to expand this segment from its current base of over 2,000 clients to over 3,000 by March 2006.

The bank offers the service in 11 offices across the country. A client with over Rs5 crore of financial assets, excluding residentail properties, would qualify as a candidate for wealth management.
Apart from the usual products such as mutual funds, insurance and portfolio management, Kotak Mahindra also offers a real estate fund and a private equity fund.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, which has positioned itself as a bank for the `mass affluent,' has a total of 1.5 lakh customers. Of these, 30,000 are exclusive customers who invest with the bank and 2,000 are wealth management clients.
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SBI-TCS venture to offer tech services to small banks
Thiruvananthapuram: The State Bank of India, in association with the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), is promoting a technology venture that will soon open its platform for others in the banking sector.

The company, in which TCS has 51 per cent and SBI a 49 per cent stake, is in the process of putting in place the technology infrastructure, and negotiations are currently on with some co-operative and regional rural banks to bring them in as clients.

The company would provide services such as data mining and data warehousing and is dedicated to the entire banking industry. It would be of help, especially to small banks with no technology platform of their own.
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