Rupee dips
Mumbai: The rupee fell against the dollar due to increasing demand for the US currency at the start of a short trading week. The currency opened at 45.35/36, touched an intra-day low of 45.4250 before closing at 45.3750.

Market participants were seen booking profits ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Tuesday.

In forwards, the six month closed at 1.64 per cent (1.61) and the 12 month ended unchanged at 1.54 per cent.

Bonds: Bond prices fell by around six paise. Dealers said the market was cautious ahead of the Credit Policy. Total traded volumes fell on the order matching system to Rs1,610 crore (Rs2,535 crore).

G-secs: The 7.59 per cent-10 year-2016 benchmark paper opened at Rs99.55 (7.66 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs99.54 (7.66 per cent YTM) against the previous close at Rs99.61 (7.65 per cent YTM). The 9.39-5 year-2011 paper opened at Rs107.60 (7.43 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs107.58 (7.43 per cent YTM) against the previous close of Rs107.65 (7.42 per cent YTM).

Call rates: Call rates stood at between 7.10 per cent to 7.20 per cent against 7.00-7.10 per cent on the previous day because of tight liquidity. For the second day running, banks were seen borrowing from the Reserve Bank of India.

Reverse repo: In the first three-day reverse repo auction under LAF, the RBI received and accepted two bids amounting to Rs85 crore.

In the repo auction, the apex bank received and accepted five bids amounting Rs1,445 crore. In the second three-day reverse repo auction, four bids for Rs640 crore were received and accepted while in the repo auction, one bid for Rs20 crore was accepted.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 382 trades aggregating to Rs21,954.20 crore in the 5.00-7.00 per cent range.
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SBP starts depository services
New Delhi: The State Bank of Patiala has launched depository services, allowing its customers to open or maintain their demat accounts at select branches of the bank.
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All eyes on RBI: rate hike expected
Mumbai: A week before the announce of the Credit Policy scheduled for October 31 bankers and analysts are divided on the RBI's stance on interest rates. A section of analysts and bankers says the Reserve Bank of India may raise the short-term repo and reverse repo rates or even mark up the CRR (cash reserve ratio).

A smaller group thinks RBI may leave interest rates unchanged.
Strong economic growth, excess money supply and inflationary pressures which show no signs of winding down, could be some of the factors, which could count when RBI sends out its policy. Money supply (M3) is running in excess of RBI's targets. The slight tightness at present is temporary and a 25 basis point hike in the short term is not unwarranted, said bankers. Inflation is the key factor in the RBI's eyes as prices of manufacturing and primary products are rising in recent times.

The RBI is also worried over credit growth, said a treasury head with a public sector bank which is reason enough to warrant another hike of 25 basis points in repo and reverse repo he said.
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SBH net rises 81 pc
Hyderabad: State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), the largest among the SBI associate banks, has reported a net profit of Rs128.76 crore during the second quarter of current fiscal ended September as against Rs71.14 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal, a growth of 81.02 per cent.

The bank attributed its impressive performance to the business process reengineering exercise that ensured improved quality of service and delivery of credit. The bank could improve its net interest margin (NIM) to 3.32 per cent by September (3.25 per cent). While the gross NPAs were brought down to 1.77 per cent in Q2 (3.66 per cent), net NPAs were reduced to 0.23 per cent from 1.04 per cent. The return on assets on annualised basis went up to 1.19 per cent from 0.74 per cent. As at the end of September, the total business registered a growth of 25.02 per cent and stood at Rs63,850 crore (Rs51,075 crore). During the second quarter, the business growth was Rs6,024.29 crore, more than double the growth in Q2 of 2005-06 of Rs2,700.85 crore. The deposits stood at Rs39,789 crore (Rs33,328 crore), while advances stood at Rs24,063 crore (Rs17,747 crore).
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Kotak Life registers 122-pc growth in H1
Mumbai: Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance has registered a 122 per cent growth in first year premium for the half year ended September 30. The first year premium calculated by the Adjusted Premium Equivalent Method, increased to Rs163.78 crore (Rs73.83 crore).

The Adjusted Premium Equivalent method, takes into account only 10 per cent of single premium. Regular premium during April-September, 2006 rose to Rs142.70 crore, against Rs70.26 crore in the corresponding period last year.
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StanChart to offer 8 pc on FDs
Mumbai: Standard Chartered Bank has begun offering 8 pc interest on 188-day fixed deposits, which are linked to savings accounts.

The offer, open till December 31, provides customers to get the returns of a fixed deposit and the flexbility of a savings account. This account provides the customer the flexibility of withdrawing money from the savings account or the fixed deposit using a cheque book or an ATM/debit card.

The minimum value for the term deposit is Rs1 lakh and an initial cheque of Rs10,000 is required to fund the linked savings account.

The account comes with four free cash withdrawal transactions at any VISA ATM across India, in addition to the unlimited access to the bank's ATMs. This allows customers the freedom and convenience to partially or fully break their fixed deposit through any VISA ATM. The balance in the deposit after partial withdrawal continues to earn the contracted rate of interest.
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Wealth management services from Bank of Baroda
Mumbai: Public sector bank, Bank of Baroda (BoB) has launched its wealth management services through select branches which will be offered on a pilot project basis in Mumbai and Ahmedabad, a bank release said here.

The bank will offer a bouquet of services to its customers such as insurance and investment products and also provide better avenues for managing their wealth.

BoB has already entered into alliances with HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co, Birla Sunlife MF, UTI MF, National Insurance Co and others for marketing their products and has also formed a team of trained investment advisors and plans to reach out to its existing and potential customers and facilitate their investment decisions through simplified processes.

It will be using internally-developed risk profiling tools, along with state-of-the-art technology, thus ensuring a faster turn-around time, the release said.
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WB may give $1bn loan to Andhra Pradesh
Hyderabad: The World Bank is considering loan assistance to six projects in Andhra Pradesh with financial commitment of $1 billion over next four years, a major chunk of it will be for the irrigation sector.

According to the World Bank managing director Graeme Wheeler the proposed funding would cover a wide variety of areas,

including rural poverty alleviation, education, health and irrigation.
The largest among the projects in the pipeline would be in irrigation sector with USD 500 million funding, he said.

The Bank is also processing the third AP Economic Reform Loan, which was expected to be presented to the lender's board of executive directors in January 2007.

He denied that the World Bank was imposing conditions while extending the loans.
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UK realty fund to invest in Mumbai
New Delhi: Trinity Capital, a UK-based real estate investment fund, has acquired a 16 per cent stake in Kapstone Constructions' township project in Mumbai for 10.75 million pound (Rs91.5 crore).

Trikona Capital which manages the assets Trinity Capital's $540 million realty fund, has entered into a co-investment partnership with Kapstone Construction to develop a large integrated township at Thane, Mumbai with an estimated project cost of 265 million pound (about Rs2,250 crore), the company said in a statement.

Trinity will provide development finance of 10.75 million pound for a stake of 16 per cent in the development with an option to increase its investment to 21 per cent for a further 3.5 million pounds, subject to specific criteria being met," the statement added.

Kapstone Construction is a part of Rustomjee's Keystone Group, a Mumbai-based real estate development company. The partnership would develop over seven million sq ft including a mix of residential, commercial and IT space as well as retail malls, educational, recreational and healthcare facilities.
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