Rupee firm against dollar
Mumbai: The rupee was firm against the dollar along with the movement of the other currencies against the greenback.

The rupee opened at 46.47/48, fell to 46.53 before closing at 46.50 against 46.50/51 on Monday. Market participants expect the domestic currency to stay in the broad range of 46.25-46.75 through the week.

Bonds: The bond prices moved in range of 20-23 paise as they were weak in the morning due to lack of buying interest, but recovered towards close. Traders feared that increased supply of bonds, in the event of oil bonds getting SLR status, could push up yields. However, prices recovered in the second half, said dealers.

G-secs: The 7.59 per cent-10 year-2016 paper opened at Rs97.68 and touched a low of Rs97.45 during day trade. It then closed at Rs97.63 (7.95 per cent YTM) almost unchanged against Monday's close of Rs97.6 (7.95 per cent YTM). The 8.07 per cent-11-year 2017 paper opened at Rs100.59 (7.98 per cent YTM), dropped to a low of Rs100.30 before ending at Rs100.52 (7.99 per cent YTM).

Call rates: Call rates remained unchanged between 6 and 6.10 per cent.

Reverse repo: In the first one-day reverse repo auction under LAF, the Reserve Bank of India received and accepted 21 bids amounting to Rs24,580 crore and in the second one-day reverse repo auction, 37 bids for Rs16,170 crore. There were no repo bids.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 316 trades aggregating to Rs17,153.30 crore in the 5.75-6 per cent range.
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Insurer Oriental Insurance Co ordered told not to victimise elderly
New Delhi: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has put the state-owned Oriental Insurance Company on notice for discouraging the sale of medical insurance to those above 45.

The regulator has told Oriental to give up its policy to deny commission to agents for renewal of mediclaim policies by those above 55. While IRDA's move would be appreciated by the ageing population, over what they called discrimination, it merely skims the surface of the industry's prejudice against the ageing.

However, nearly all insurers can be accused of this and while IRDA has acted against the public insurance company, it has not ventured to question private players who were either offering no health cover to those over 50 years or were charging twice the premium that the state-owned insurers charged.
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RBI against FRBM target relief
New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India is supporting the finance ministry in its opposition to moves to dilute restrictions that the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2004 imposes on government spending and fiscal profligacy.

The Planning Commission has suggested moving the goalposts by two years, a proposition that has not gone down well with North Block as well.

Questioning the suggestion, the Reserve Bank of India has said the move will have macroeconomic and budgetary implications, besides impacting the government's credibility. The RBI says that in the present milieu, adhering to FRBM targets in respect of fiscal and revenue deficit is critical. Fiscal discipline remains the major factor in determining the investment grade rating of the Indian economy by various international agencies.

In its comments on the Eleventh Plan approach paper, the RBI has also pointed out that the huge fiscal deficit has resulted in accumulation of outstanding debt which is substantially high by international standards and further use of borrowed resources for meeting current expenditure requirements has resulted in widening of asset-liability mismatches.

The Centre's outstanding debt — of more than 62 per cent of the GDP as of March end this year — is quite high. The debt-GDP ratio for the Centre and states together also stood at around 80 per cent in 2005-06. In such circumstances, any increase in fiscal deficit will have repercussions on inflation and interest rates, the note adds.
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