Rupee remains unchanged
Mumbai: The rupee remained unchanged against the dollar due to heavy dollar demand by nationalised banks on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India. The rupee opened at 44.65/66 and touched an intra-day low of 44.72. It finally closed at 44.71, almost the same as Tuesday's 44.69/70.

Forwards: In the forward premia market, the 6-month closed at 1.25 per cent (1.63) and the 12-month ended at 1.3 per cent (1.56).

G-secs: The 9.39 per cent-5 year-2011 paper opened at Rs109.045 (7.275 per cent YTM) and ended at Rs109.465 (7.18 per cent YTM), up from the previous close at Rs109.03 (7.28 per cent YTM). The 8.07 per cent-11 year-2017 paper opened at Rs103.74 (7.55 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs104 (7.52 per cent YTM), higher than Tuesday's Rs103.83 (7.54 per cent YTM).

Call rate: The call rate closed at 5.5 per cent (5.75).

Reverse repo: In the two-day reverse repo, under the liquidity adjustment facility, the RBI accepted 14 bids, amounting to Rs9,710 crore and one bid for Rs65 crore in the repo auction. In the second auction, the central bank accepted 32 bids for Rs20,280 crore through the reverse repo.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 338 trades, aggregating Rs17,611.55 crore in the rate range of 4 to 5.65 per cent.
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Kotak Bank to launch gold hedging services
Mumbai: Kotak Mahindra Bank is launching gold hedging services, which are at a nascent stage in India. ICICI Bank is already in the business of gold hedging services. Analysts said Indian gold jewellery manufacturers hedge their gold purchases on the Dubai Commodity Exchange, as such services are not widely available in India.

Gold hedging is one of the four gold business lines the private sector bank has decided to start following the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) move to provide bullion business licences.

Apart from forward cover on gold, Kotak Bank will start giving gold loans, selling gold coins and also consignment services on gold, silver and platinum.

The other players having a presence in the gold business include private sector entities such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank trading companies such as the Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India (MMTC).

The total demand for gold across the globe is around 4,000 tonne, out of which Indian accounts for about 800 tonne.
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HC dismisses petition challenging Ganesh, Fed Bank merger
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has dismissed a petition challenging Ganesh Bank's merger with the Kerala-based Federal Bank. The court has provided the petitioners four weeks to appeal against its decision before the Supreme Court.

RBI had announced Ganesh Bank's merger with Federal Bank in January. However, a day after the merger came into effect on January 25, shareholders and employees of Ganesh Bank managed to get an injunction from the High Court against the merger.

RBI and Federal Bank appealed against the decision at the Supreme Court, which referred the case back to the High Court. The Ganesh Bank legal imbroglio is being closely watched in the banking circles, as it could turn out to be a precedent on 'forced' mergers in the future.

The moratorium on Ganesh Bank, imposed on January 7 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will continue till the courts deliver a final verdict on the case. The moratorium was imposed after the bank's net worth and capital adequacy ratio turned negative and the promoters were unable to come up with a plan to infuse fresh capital.
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Indian Bank can write off losses
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet gave its nod to write off Indian Bank's accumulated losses of Rs3,830.14 crore against its capital of Rs4,573.96 crore.

The Cabinet also gave its approval to convert a portion of the remaining equity capital of Rs743.82 crore into preference share capital, in line with the Reserve Bank of India guidelines. Indian Bank has been making operating profits from 1999-2000 and net profit from 2001-02.
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