Rupee firms up - bonds range-bound
Mumbai: The rupee gained against the greenback on the back of robust dollar inflows on Friday closing the day at 44.25, up from Thursday's close at 44.3550.
Forwards market: The 6-month forward closed at 2.2 per cent (2.25) and the 12-month ended at 1.63 per cent (1.7).

G-Secs: The 8.07-11 year-2017 paper closed at Rs106.515 (7.20 per cent YTM), higher than Thursday's Rs106.42 (7.21 per cent YTM). The 10.25-15 year-2021 paper closed at Rs126.52 (7.34 per cent YTM).

Call rates: The inter bank rates closed at 6.4-6.6 per cent (6.5).

Repo: In the first three-day reverse-repo, the RBI received two bids for Rs20 crore and 26 bids for Rs12,440 crore in the repo auction. In the second three-day reverse-repo auction, it received six bids for Rs455 crore, and in the repo auction it received 11 bids for Rs1,805 crore .

CBLO market: there were 375 trades for Rs12,738.80 crore in the rate range of 5-6.5 per cent.
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Forex reserves up by US$158mn at US$139.510bn
Mumbai: The foreign exchange reserves increased by a modest US$158mn for the week ended January 13, after a huge rise of US$2.146bn in the previous week.

According to the Reserve Bank of India's Weekly Statistical Supplement, the foreign exchange reserves were at US$139.510bn against the previous week's US$139.353bn.

For the week under consideration, foreign currency assets increased by US$154mn to touch US$133.308bn. Foreign currency assets expressed in dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as euro, sterling and yen.

The week under review also saw an outflow of FII funds from the domestic equity market to the tune of US$137.2mn, according to figures from SEBI. Gold remained unchanged at US$5.274bn.
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ICICI Bank Q3 net up 24 pc
Mumbai: ICICI Bank has reported a 24 per cent increase in net profit for the third quarter ended December 31, 2005, at Rs640 crore from Rs518 crore a year ago.

Net interest income rose by 59 per cent, to Rs1,167 crore (Rs733 crore). Non-interest income (excluding treasury) at Rs1,011 crore grew by 46 per cent, up from Rs692 crore.

Fee income rose by 52 per cent, to Rs846 crore (Rs558 crore).

This includes income from sale of third party products, origination fees for home loans and transaction fees among others, said Ms Kalpana Morparia, deputy managing director of the bank.

Lease and other income grew by 23 per cent, to Rs165 crore (Rs134 crore).

Treasury income declined by 16 per cent to Rs168 crore (Rs199 crore).

Total income at Rs4,763 crore (Rs3,269 crore) showed a rise of 45.6 per cent, while total expenditure rose by 42.8 per cent, to Rs3,568 crore (Rs2,497 crore).

Operating profit grew by 54.8 per cent, and amounted to Rs1,194 crore (Rs771 crore).

The bank's net customer assets increased by 50 per cent, to Rs1,27,319 crore as on December 31, 2005, against Rs84,859 crore a year ago. Retail assets constituted 64 per cent of advances and 62 per cent of customer assets.

"Home loans comprise nearly 50 per cent of the retail portfolio," said Ms Morparia. "Personal loans comprise 10 per cent, while the remaining 40 per cent comprise all kinds of vehicle funding."

Deposits increased 63 per cent to Rs1,33,881 crore from Rs81,928 crore a year ago.

In the nine months ended December 31, 2005, total retail disbursements were Rs43,200 crore, including home loan disbursements of Rs17,600 crore.

The loan portfolio of the bank's international branches rose by 192 per cent, to Rs12,000 crore. The small, medium enterprise and agribusiness portfolio increased 20 per cent, to Rs32,000 crore.

The bank's capital adequacy ratio (CAR) as at December 31, 2005, was 14.5 per cent, including tier-1 CAR of 10.5 per cent.
The bank sold NPAs worth Rs258 crore, which were the residuary NPAs contributed by the erstwhile ICICI. The remaining NPAs now amount to about Rs400 crore, said Ms Morparia.

Among the group companies, ICICI Securities showed a net profit of Rs29 crore for the third quarter, while ICICI Lombard General Insurance reported a profit after tax of Rs10 crore.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance had a negative impact of Rs49 crore on the bank's consolidated net profit.
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IDFC Q3 PAT at Rs.89-cr
Mumbai: Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd (IDFC) has posted a profit after tax of Rs89.4 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005 (Q3 FY 05-06) as compared to Rs80.27 crore for the year-ago period. Total income increased to Rs244.86 crore during this quarter from Rs177.53 crore in the year-ago period.

The Group has posted a profit after tax of Rs93.44 crore for the December 2005 quarter as compared to Rs81.22 crore for the year-ago period.

Total income has increased to Rs253.27 crore from Rs180.83 crore in the year-ago period.

During the period April-December 2005, gross approvals and disbursements were Rs7,476 crore for 64 projects and Rs4,124 crore for 63 projects, an increase of 46 per cent and 60 per cent, respectively, over the same period in the previous financial year.

As on December 31, 2005, IDFC's exposure was Rs16,364 crore. Disbursements (including non-funded commitments) were made for 141 projects aggregating Rs14,702 crore. Of these, Rs4,450 crore has been repaid.

Outstanding disbursements, as on December 31, 2005, were Rs10,252 crore, of which net loans constituted Rs8,705 crore.
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United Bank of India records Rs.175-cr net for Apr-Dec. period
Kolkata: United Bank of India (UBI) has recorded a net profit of Rs175.42 crore during April-December 2005 as against Rs165.97 crore posted during the corresponding period of the previous year.

The bank reported an increase in operating profit to Rs490.67 crore during the nine months ended December compared with Rs469.97 crore during April-December 2004. UBI has posted an increase in net worth from Rs1,478 crore in December last year to Rs1,800 crore in December 2005.

Its CAR stands at 15.6 per cent. Total business consisting of deposit and advance increased by 21 per cent from Rs34,370 crore to Rs41,580 crore on a year-on-year basis. Deposits saw a 14.8 per cent growth to Rs27,324 crore. The share of low cost deposits to total deposits was 46.1 per cent in end 2005.

The bank's net non-performing assets declined to 2.19 per cent as on December 31 (2.45 per cent).

UBI's net investment portfolio stood at Rs14,298 crore in end December, an increase of 6 per cent on a year-on-year basis. Agricultural advances increased by 55 per cent to Rs1,971 crore.
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