Rupee declines against dollar
Mumbai: The rupee declined against the dollar on Tuesday mainly due to the central bank's intervention in the forex market. The rupee opened at 44.56/58 and moved down to finally close at 44.69/70. On Monday, the rupee closed at 44.59/60.

Forwards: In the forward premia market, the 6-month closed at 1.63 per cent (2.01 per cent) and the 12-month ended at 1.56 per cent (1.81 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices rose as liquidity improved on hopes that government spending would increase.

G-secs: The 9.39 per cent 5-year 2011 paper opened at Rs109.1 (7.26 per cent YTM), touched a high of Rs109.24 (7.24 per cent YTM) before closing at Rs109.03 (7.28 per cent YTM) against the previous level of Rs109.04 (7.28 per cent YTM). The 8.07 per cent 11-year 2017 paper opened at Rs103.77 (7.55 per cent YTM) and ended trade at Rs103.83 (7.54 per cent YTM) higher than Monday's close of Rs103.70 (7.56 per cent YTM).

RBI also announced the auction of two government papers for Rs8,000 crore after market hours.

Call rates: Call rates fell below 6 per cent and ended close to 5.75 per cent (6 per cent) on improved liquidity.

Repo auction: In the one-day reverse repo, under the liquidity adjustment facility, RBI accepted eight bids, amounting to Rs4,300 crore and one bid for Rs65 crore in the repo auction. In the second auction, the central bank accepted 26 bids for Rs17,740 crore through the reverse repo and two bids for Rs60 crore through the repo auction.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 282 trades, aggregating to Rs15,226.35 crore in the rate range of 3.5 to 6.51 per cent.
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Government remains unrelenting on SBI strike
New Delhi: The Government appears to be in no mood to relent to the pressures of the striking employees of the State Bank of India employees. The strike entered the second day on Tuesday. Senior finance ministry officials indicated that the Government was not in favour of acceding to the demands as it could result in similar demands being placed by other state-owned banks.

SBI employees have been demanding a comprehensive review of the pension ceiling in order to provide for 50 per cent of the last drawn pay as pension. The SBI officers' union has indicated that it is willing to enter into negotiations with the Government. Operations at all SBI branches were paralysed for the second day on Tuesday. Cheque clearing was affected as all SBI-run clearing centres could not operate.

To help customers, the SBI management said they could avail themselves free of charge of the ATM facility of SBI's associate banks and other banks with whom SBI has a bilateral arrangement.

The banks are HDFC Bank, UTI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Corporation Bank, Indian Bank, Andhra Bank, Dena Bank, UCO Bank and Punjab National Bank. SBI has an ATM network of 5,000. The usual charges otherwise levied under the bilateral arrangement with these nine banks would be waived or refunded for the transactions made during the strike, said the press release issued by SBI.
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Central banks lock horns on Singapore pact
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) are at loggerheads on a variety of issues regarding the Comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement (CECA) India and Singapore signed last year.

MAS has taken up with RBI the issue of Temasek Holding not being allowed to raise its stake in ICICI Bank at the time of the latter's recent public issue. The RBI has taken the position that both Temasek and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) are owned by the Singapore government, whose combined stake in ICICI would therefore cross the 10 per cent limit allowed to any one party in a private bank. Singapore has insisted that Temasek and GIC operate as independent entities.

Last year was also a record year for Singapore investments into India. About US $321 million worth of investment was made by Singapore companies in India last year, up five times from US $62.1 million in the whole of 2004. Overall, Singapore was the third largest investor in India in 2005, behind Mauritius and the US.
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GE Money raises home loan rates
Mumbai: GE Money, the consumer finance unit of General Electric Company, has raised floating home loan rates by 0.75 per cent. The revision is with effect from April 1. According to the company's release, the rate increase is on account of an increase in the benchmark floating reference rate by 0.75 per cent.
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IRDA sets guidelines to spot money launderers
Kolkata: Non-resident Indians, high networth individuals, those paying insurance premia of above Rs 1 lakh and other such criteria could identify individuals as potential money launderers unless they identify their source of funds, in the eyes of the Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA).

IRDA, which recently released the guidelines for 'Know your clients' as a precaution to stall money laundering, has asked insurance companies to divide clients into two categories - high risk and low-risk.

HNI, NRI, trusts, charities, NGOs and organisations receiving donations, companies having close family shareholding or beneficial ownership, firms with sleeping partners, politically exposed persons have all been categorised high-risk clients by the authority. Insurers will also have to ensure that insurance purchased by high-risk clients is reasonable and not beyond their means of income. Additionally, these entities will have to disclose their source of funds, estimated net worth, along with proof of income to establish the need for such large insurance covers.

Selling insurance to customers with a known criminal background or to banned entities, as well as individuals known to have links with terrorists or terrorist organisations have been made a strict no-no by IRDA.
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