Rupee firms up - securities flat
Mumbai: The rupee moved up against the dollar in tandem with the euro initially, but finally ended the day at 44.21, up from Friday's close at 44.25.

Forwards: In the premia market, the 6-month closed at 1.96 per cent (2.2 per cent) and the 12-month ended at 1.52 per cent (1.63 per cent).

G-Secs: The 9.39 per cent-5 year-2011 paper closed at Rs111.97 (6.72 per cent YTM). The 10.25 per cent-15 year-2021 paper ended at Rs126.50 (7.34 per cent YTM), lower than Friday's close of Rs126.52 (7.34 per cent YTM).

Call rates: The inter bank rates closed at 7 per cent (6.50-6.60 per cent).

Reverse repo: In the first one-day reverse-repo, the RBI received one bid for Rs15 crore and 32 bids for Rs14,400 crore in the repo auction. In the second one-day reverse-repo auction, the RBI received three bids for Rs330 crore and 13 bids for Rs4,795 crore in the repo auction.

CBLO market: There were 302 trades for Rs12,055.9 crore in the rate range of 6.21-6.50 per cent.
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RBI fines seven banks involved in IPO scam
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India on Monday fined seven commercial banks for violating its regulations on 'Know Your Customer' norms, breaching prudent banking practices and facilitating misuse of IPO finance to benami individuals.

The seven banks are: Bharat Overseas Bank, Citibank, Vijaya Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.

The Chennai-based Bharat Overseas Bank has been fined the highest amount at Rs20 lakh, followed by Indian Overseas (Rs15 lakh) and Vijaya Bank (Rs10 lakh). Rest of the banks have been fined Rs5 lakh each as penalty.

In the case of Bharat Overseas Bank, whose Ahmedabad branch was misused by kingpin Roopalben and Co to get allotment of Yes Bank and IDFC shares, the RBI said the bank extended IPO financing to fictitious/benami individuals without appropriate due diligence. ''Apart from providing intra-day margin money to brokers, the bank had extended huge amounts to a group of accounts through these fictitious/benami individuals,'' the RBI said.

In its order on Indian Overseas Bank, the RBI said it failed to monitor the unusual and suspicious transactions in the account and the failure of internal control in monitoring the non-compliance with KYS policies/procedures.

Among the foreign banks, Citibank and Stanchart Bank did not pay any attention to the RBI's guidelines on monitoring suspicious transactions. Citibank issued a large number of cheque leaves, which was not in consonance with the status of the account holder.
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Vedanta Resources to issue US$725mn convertible bonds
Mumbai: Vedanta Resources on Monday announced the launch of its US$725mn convertible bonds issue, which will be due 2026. Barclays Bank Plc has also been granted an option to increase the issue size by an additional US$125mn.

The bonds will be issued by Vedanta Finance (Jersey) Ltd and guaranteed by Vedanta. According to the company, the proceeds of the issue will be used towards refinancing subsidiary indebtedness.
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SBI Hyderabad launches new home loan product
Visakhapatnam: The SBI Hyderabad has introduced a new home loan, christened SBI Freedom, for high net worth individuals, NRIs and software professionals.

SBI officials said that through the scheme there would be 100 per cent finance of the project, no mortgage of the property, provided the individual could show liquid securities such as LIC policies or NSCs. The repayment could be out of the proceeds of securities instead of the regular EMI and only the monthly interest should be paid.

As far as Andhra Pradesh was concerned, against a target of Rs1,200 crore for the current financial year, home loans had already been disbursed to the extent of Rs907 crore till December. They said that they were confident of achieving the overall target easily.

The bank had set itself the target of setting up 85 new ATMs in the year and 35 had been set up till December.
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Canara Bank's Q3 net up 30 pc
Bangalore: City-based Canara Bank has reported a 30 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit for the third quarter(Q3) ended December 31, '05 at Rs356.3 crore against Rs274 crore in the year-ago quarter.

MBN Rao, the bank's chairman and managing director said that the topline was boosted by a 14.4 per cent rise in total income at Rs2,551.2 crore (Rs2,230.7 crore in the comparable period of FY05).

Operating expenses were up at Rs570.2 crore against Rs496.9 crore, representing a growth of 14.7 per cent, while interest expended component was up 14 per cent at Rs1,281.8 crore, compared to Rs1,123.7 crore in the year-ago period.

For the nine-month period, the bank's net profit was Rs849.7 crore against Rs1,007.2 crore, showing a dip of 16 per cent. Total income during the period was up 10 per cent at Rs7,283.9 crore (Rs6,622.6 crore).

The bank's global business at Rs1,75,092 crore reflected an 18.96 per cent year-on-year increase. Deposits grew by 11.6 per cent at Rs1,04,525 crore while net advances witnessed a year-on-year growth of 31.8 per cent at Rs70,567 crore in the third quarter.
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OBC net up 12 pc at Rs.143.42-cr
New Delhi: Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) has recorded a net profit of Rs143.42 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2005, a 12.3 per cent increase over the net of Rs127.70 crore during the corresponding period in the previous fiscal.

Total income increased to Rs1176.14 crore at the end of the third quarter of the current fiscal against Rs1075.61 crore during the corresponding period of fiscal 2004-05.

The bank's net profit for the first nine months of the current fiscal reached Rs535.94 crore, a 2.45 per cent increase over Rs523.10 crore during the corresponding period in the previous fiscal. The operating profit for the nine months increased to Rs909.70 crore from Rs889.94 crore.

Officials said that the bank plans to raise Rs500 crore tier-II capital soon, which would take the bank's capital adequacy to over 13 per cent from 12.98 per cent.
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State Bank of Mysore Q3 net up 15 pc at Rs.40-cr
Bangalore: The State Bank of Mysore (SBM) has reported a 15 per cent increase in net profit for the third quarter, which stood at Rs39.6 crore, up from Rs34.38 crore during the corresponding previous period. Operating profit, however, was down at Rs118.36 crore (Rs172.51 crore).

The higher net profit was achieved by reduced provisions, which were lower at Rs47.68 crore (Rs153.93 crore). The bank also reported reduction in gross income at Rs423.31 crore (Rs427.28 crore). The reduced income was largely on account of a fall in income from investments to Rs107.67 crore (Rs118.06 crore).

Gross expenditure rose to Rs304.95 crore (Rs254.76 crore).
Interest expenditure rose to Rs184.05 crore (Rs152.95 crore).
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