Rupee rises marginally
Mumbai: The rupee rose marginally to 46.29 on Thursday, on dollar sales by exporters. The domestic currency opened at 46.37/38, to close at 46.29.

Forwards: In the forward premia market, the six-month closed at 1.1 per cent (1.16 per cent) and the 12-month at 1.26 per cent (1.25 per cent).

Bonds: In the bond market, sentiment continued to be bearish ahead of Friday's Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Traded volumes were low at a little over Rs250 crore.

Dealers said that the market had factored in a 25-basis point hike in the interest rate at the FOMC meeting, but a 50-basis point increase could cause yields to harden.

G-secs: The 7.59 per cent-10 year-2016 benchmark paper opened at Rs96.45 (8.12 per cent YTM) and ended at Rs96.48 (8.11 per cent YTM), against Wednesday's close at Rs96.50 (8.11 per cent YTM). The 7.37 per cent-8 year-2014 paper opened at Rs96.20 (8.03 per cent YTM) and closed at the same level.

Call rates: Call rates remained unchanged between 5.75 and 5.85 per cent.

Reverse repo: In the first one-day reverse repo auction under LAF, the Reserve Bank of India received and accepted 23 bids amounting to Rs22,180 crore and in the second one-day reverse repo auction 35 bids for Rs22,115 crore.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 249 trades aggregating to Rs15,139.25 crore in the 5.55-5.82 per cent range.
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NHB mulls offering reverse mortgage
Kolkata: A proposal being considered by the National Housing Bank (NHB) is to offer reverse mortgage for senior citizens. Reverse mortgage, seen as a way to meet the financial requirements of elderly house-owners, will help provide monetary benefits to them over a period of time at a rate that will be somewhat higher than what is prevailing in the market.

The facility will not be free - accumulated interest and principal will be in normal circumstances recovered after the death of the home owner through sale of the property concerned; the residual value, if any, will be handed over to the heirs.

The reserve mortgage product, to be offered by banks and housing finance companies, would be re-financed by NHB. However, the proposal would have to be cleared by the Reserve Bank of India.

NHB says its surveys have shown that many senior citizens will want such an option. A number of them face a situation where their children are not in a position to support them. In other cases, people are not willing to take help from their children. In some countries, reverse mortgage comes bundled with tax breaks.
The idea, it is explained, is actually in line with one of NHB's broader objectives - provision of longer term housing finance to sections that need it most. Besides senior citizens, these include what are being billed as "unserved and under-served" communities.

The NHB is also planning to come out with a national housing price index `NHB Residex', as part of wide-ranging initiatives to improve the primary market for housing finance. The index is expected to fill the void created by an absence of a relevant benchmark in the booming housing market in India. The index will be launched as a pilot programme in New Delhi in the current year.
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Barclays India FY06 net nearly doubles
Mumbai: Barclays India has nearly doubled its net profit for the financial year ended March 2006, with strong growth in key business segments, including investment banking and risk management.

The bank has reported a net profit of Rs120 crore, as compared with Rs62.5 crore a year earlier. Revenues surged 82 percent to Rs2.7 billion. Operating profits jumped 86 per cent to Rs220 crore from Rs120 crore the previous year. The net non-performing assets (NPAs) ratio continues to be nil.
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Karnataka Vikas cuts rates on crop loans
Mangalore: Regional rural bank the Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank, which is sponsored by Syndicate Bank is offering crop loans of upto Rs3 lakh at a reduced interest rate of 7 per cent.

B.S. Surendra, chairman of the bank, said this decision was taken in the interest of farming community, as low interest rates will encourage farmers to avail of loans and increase the crop production. This will lead to increase in their earnings.

1.5 lakh farmers are expected to avail of this facility. The bank is planning to disburse Rs1,100 crore during the current fiscal. Of this, Rs566 crore has been earmarked for agriculture sector.
Last year 2005-06, the bank disbursed Rs435.71 crore to agriculture sector.

The new rate will be made applicable with effect from April 1 for its customers in Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri, Belgaum, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Uttara Kannada, Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts.
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Union Bank makes dividend payment to Govt
Mumbai: Union Bank of India has paid Rs98 crore as dividend to the Government for the fiscal 2005-06, said a press release from the bank. The bank declared a dividend of 35 per cent last year.
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UTI Bank plans to raise Rs138.4-cr
Mumbai: UTI Bank plans to raise Rs138.4 crore Tier-II capital through unsecured non-convertible redeemable debentures of Rs1 lakh each. The debentures are issued for 87-120 months and will be issued to investors on a private placement basis, the bank said in a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange. This includes a greenshoe option of Rs38.4 crore.
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Corp bonds may be traded on BSE
New Delhi: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is planning to launch a platform that will enable bonds to be traded like equities this fiscal.

However, before coming out with Single Unified Exchange Traded Corporate Debt Platform, the bourse will start collection of data on corporate bonds issues for 3 months.

T+2 will be the settlement system for corporate bonds. To begin with, all listed companies would be allowed to trade on the platform.

NSE brokers, who are not members of BSE, can also participate in trading of corporate bonds on a "nominal" charge.

Ashok Lahiri, chief economic adviser to the government, said the country needs a bond market for non-blue chip companies to provide long term funds.
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