Rupee declines
Mumbai: The rupee declined by over 20 paise against the dollar on dollar buying by government banks. The rupee opened at 44.97 and closed at 45.19/20, against the previous close of 44.98.

The six-month forward premium closed at 1.87 per cent (1.79 per cent) and the one-year premium closed at 1.75 per cent (1.68 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices edged up by around 20 paise on improved liquidity. The total traded volumes on the order matching system stood at Rs7,520 crore (Rs6,120 crore).

G-secs: The 7.59 per cent - 10 year-2016 paper opened at Rs99.75 (7.59 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs100.21 (7.56 per cent YTM), higher than Monday's Rs100.01 (7.59 per cent YTM). The 8.07-11 year-2017 paper opened at Rs103.63 and closed at Rs103.70 (7.53 per cent YTM), against Monday's Rs103.67 (7.54 per cent YTM).

Call rates: Call rates closed at 6.9-7 per cent (6.85-6.95 per cent) on Tuesday.

Reverse repo: In the first one-day reverse repo auction under LAF, the Reserve Bank of India received and accepted one bid amounting to Rs170 crore. In the second one-day reverse repo auction, it accepted and received four bids for Rs4,110 crore. There were no repo bids.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 433 trades aggregating Rs21,520.95 crore in the 6.45-7.25 per cent range.
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Priority sector lending up 33.7 pc in 2005-06
Mumbai: Bank credit to the priority sector rose by 33.7 per cent to touch Rs5, 09,910 crore as on March 31, 2006. In the previous year, such credits increased 40.3 per cent to Rs3, 81,476 crore as on March 18, 2005. Lending to the agriculture and housing sector accounted for more than two-third of incremental priority sector lending in 2005-06, said the Reserve Bank of India in its Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India, 2005-06, released on Tuesday.

Loans and advances grew by 31.8 per cent during 2005-06 on top of the increase of 33.2 per cent in the previous year. Deposit growth was 17.8 per cent against 16.6 per cent.

While public sector banks as a group achieved the priority sector target of 40 per cent of net bank credit (NBC) as on the last reporting Friday of March 2006, the sub-targets of 18 per cent of NBC to agriculture sector and 10 per cent of NBC to the weaker sections were not met, the report said.
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Tatas to enter banking infrastructure biz
Chennai: The Tata Group plans to enter the banking infrastructure business, and also strengthen its presence in areas like biotechnology and alternative energy.

As part of its plans to enter banking infrastructure, the group plans to construct a chain of ATMs and money boxes and lease them to banks. The group is in discussions with RBI, which has so far not allowed non-banking companies to enter the sector.

Tata Industries set up by the Tata group to tap new and high-tech areas will spearhead the group's efforts.
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ICICI Bank earmarks Rs1,000-cr to fund biotech sector
Mumbai: ICICI Bank said it has earmarked a corpus of Rs1,000 crore to finance pharma and biotech sectors.

Out of the corpus, the bank has already approved loan applications of Rs650-700 crore and its exposure to the bio-technology sector is growing at over 50 per cent year-on-year. The Bank has also inducted personnel from the biotechnology industry in the bank to understand the language of the industry better and service their needs in a convenient manner. ICICI Bank also signed an MoU with the Maharashtra government to provide banking services to biotechnology sector within the State.
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LIC achieves 178 pc rise in premium collection
New Delhi: Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has recorded 178 per cent increase in premium collection during April-September this fiscal, higher than the life insurance industry growth rate of 162 per cent.

A total of 16 players together mopped up Rs29,664 crore in premium till September of 2006-07 as against Rs11,323 crore in the same period of 2005-06, a growth of 161.98 per cent, according to data compiled by regulator IRDA.

LIC Sold 98.36 lakh policies in the period as compared to Rs8,409 crore collected in the year ago period and increased its market share to 79 per cent from 78.84 per cent a month back, while the private players' market pie were down marginally to 21 per cent from 21.16 per cent.

The 15 private players, led by ICICI Prudential, collected Rs6,229 crore together in premium till September as against Rs2,914 crore a year ago.

ICICI Prudential achieved 112 per cent growth in premium income at Rs1,745 crore and had a market share of 5.88 per cent.
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Rabo India Finance becomes public limited company
Mumbai: Rabo India Finance has now become a public limited company following receipt of regulatory approvals from the Registrar of Companies. The new entity will henceforth be known as Rabo India Finance Ltd (RIF), a company release said here on Tuesday.

However, RIF will continue to remain a wholly owned subsidiary of Dutch financial powerhouse, Rabobank International.
The conversion into a public entity will enable RIF to list its debt securities (non-convertible debentures) on the wholesale debt market for wider acceptability. It will also make it more feasible for banks and mutual funds to subscribe to RIF's non -convertible debentures.
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