Forex reserves up $2.5bn third week in a row
Mumbai: India's foreign exchange reserves have risen by over $2.5bn, third week in a row. For the week ended April 7, the net accretion to the forex reserves was $2.587bn, taking it to a record high $154.209bn.

In the previous week, the reserves had risen by $2.96bn to $151.62bn. In the last three weeks, the net accretion to the reserves stood at $8.047bn.

This is the eleventh consecutive week that the reserves have experienced a rise.

According to the RBI's weekly statistical supplement, foreign currency assets increased by $2.584bn to touch $147.692bn during the week.

Foreign currency assets, expressed in dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as euro, sterling and yen. During the week, net FII inflows stood at $112.20 million.

Gold reserves were unchanged at $5.75bn. The reserve position in the IMF also rose $3mn to touch $759mn. However, SDRs remained unchanged at $3mn.
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LIC sells more traditional policies than ULIPs in fiscal 2005-06
Mumbai: The share of unit-linked products in Life Insurance Corporation's new business portfolio has shrunk in the last fiscal, with the ratio of unit-linked and traditional plans changing to 42:58 in 2005-06 from 65:35 in the previous year.

While the unit-linked products' first premium income was Rs7,631.7 crore, the conventional products raked in Rs10,453.7 crore.
The corporation's golden jubilee product - Bima Gold, a money-back plan with a lower sum-assured, contributed to 31 per cent of new policies, and also helped in increasing the ratio of traditional products.

LIC made a gross investment of Rs14,867 crore in the equity market, up from the previous year's Rs10,000 crore. Investment in the debt market was around Rs45,000 crore. LIC has also invested Rs12,000 crore in infrastructure in the last fiscal.

For fiscal 2005-06, LIC's first premium income grew 48.6 per cent, to Rs18,085 crore, up from Rs12,174 crore in 2004-05. It sold 3.15 crore policies in 2005-06, making for an all-time high growth of 31.7 per cent in new policies. 1.7 crore polices were sold in March alone, officials said.

LIC also plans to launch four or five new products in the current fiscal.
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SBI to finance farmers for combine harvesters
New Delhi: The State Bank of India on Thursday said it has entered into an agreement with Class India Ltd to finance farmers for combine harvesters.

An MoU in this regard has been signed at Faridabad in Haryana, the bank said in a statement. SBI provides a very strong network of branches for bringing farmers and various corporates dealing with farm inputs and machinery on a common platform, it said.
The MoU is one such joint initiative by the SBI and Class India Ltd in this direction, it added.
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IL&FS to raise $60mn through overseas issue
Mumbai: IL&FS Investment Managers Ltd has informed the BSE that it plans to raise $60mn through an overseas issue. The fund would be raised through an issue of equity shares, depository receipts, foreign currency convertible bonds or any other financial instrument, the company said in a notice to the stock exchange.

The company may go for a greenshoe option to the extent of 10 per cent of the issue size. The company has called for an extraordinary general meeting of its shareholders on May 3 to seek their approval for the proposal to raise funds.

The company also plans to increase its authorised share capital by Rs20 crore to Rs50 crore. It will also seek shareholders' approval for the issue of bonus shares in the ratio of one share for every two shares held.

IL&FS said it would also seek approval for raising FII limit to 74 per cent.
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