Re weakens
Mumbai: The rupee weakened by 15 paise due to rising demand for dollars from foreign banks and RBI. The home currency opened at 45.17, to finally close Rs 45.34/35, against the previous close at 45.19/20.

Forwards: In forwards, the six-month premium closed at 1.88 per cent (1.79 per cent) and the one-year closed at 1.73 per cent (1.7 per cent). The dollar strengthened slightly against the yen, euro and sterling.

Bonds: Bonds gained by about 21 paise on due to expectations of no adverse impact on interest rates and no pressure on liquidity.

Total traded volumes on the order matching system were Rs8,415 crore (Rs7,520 crore).

G-secs: The 7.59 per cent-10 year-2016 paper opened at Rs100.30 (7.54 per cent YTM) and touched a high of Rs100.65 (7.49 per cent YTM) during day trade. It ended at Rs100.43 (7.52 per cent YTM) against the previous close of Rs100.21 (7.56 per cent YTM).

The 8.07-11 year-2017 paper opened at Rs103.75 (7.53 per cent YTM) and touched a high of Rs103.99 (7.50 per cent). It ended at Rs103.86 (7.52 per cent) against the previous close of Rs103.70 (7.53 per cent YTM).

Call rates: Call rates ruled between 7-7.1 per cent against 6.9-7 per cent on Tuesday.

Reverse repo: In the first one-day reverse-repo auction under LAF, the RBI received and accepted one bid amounting to Rs120 crore.

There were no repo bids. In the second one-day reverse-repo auction, RBI accepted and received three bids for Rs4,990 crore.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 359 trades aggregating to Rs19,017.15 crore in the 6.75-7.15 per cent range.
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i-flex to launch core banking solution
Mumbai: i-flex Solutions and Financial Services Inc. (FSI) have together launched FLEXICUBE as a hosted offering to community banks in the US.

FLEXCUBE - a core banking solution from i-flex the company's flagship offering - will equip community banks to compete with large banks and financial institutions on an equal footing, said a news release from i-flex.

"The combination of the FLEXICUBE platform and FSI's extensive experience in supporting community banks will help banks in this segment achieve competitive advantage," said George Thomas, vice-president - customer fulfilment and solution architecture, i-flex Solutions in a statement.
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PNB introduces health insurance product for customers
New Delhi: Punjab National Bank (PNB) has launched PNB Arogya Shree to provide health insurance for its 35 million customers. The new offering is a product of Reliance General that has been tailor-made for PNB customers.

The bank says its large customer base has helped it in getting the premium amount lowered. The product has additional features and would be marketed through PNB's branches. The scheme would initially be available on a pilot basis at 64 select core banking solution (CBS) branches in Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow with effect from today.

This pilot would run until December 31. From January 2007, the product would be available at about 450 CBS branches across the country.
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Vijaya Bank receives RBI nod
Bangalore: The Reserve Bank of India has given Vijaya Bank the green signal to open 28 new branches across the country. The bank had also been permitted to 23 new offsite Automatic Teller Machines. The licences were withheld early this year on account of inconsistencies in the opening of demat accounts of several banks.
Vijaya Bank currently has 932 branches and has plans to open branches in the Far East.
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Konkan Railway plans Rs100-crore bond issue
New Delhi: Konkan Railway Corporation is planning to launch a Rs75-100-crore bond issue over the next two-three weeks. The company had raised Rs350 crore through bonds a few months ago. All the funds raised are aimed at reducing the cost of finances by redeeming high coupon bonds.

Konkan Railway has received a letter of comfort from the Railway Ministry for raising up to Rs550 crore, out of which Rs350 crore have already been raised. The letter of comfort, which provides the Railway Ministry backing to these bonds, enables Konkan Railways to raise funds at a relatively lower rate.

The company says it may not engage a lead banker for the issue and may look at mobilising the funds on its own. For the Rs350 crore issue, Konkan Railways had engaged lead managers that include Centrum Finance, AK Capital, Darashaw & Company, UTI, ICICI Securities and Allianz Securities.

With Rs630 crore turnover, the organisation registered an operating surplus of Rs130-crore profit in 2005-06, against Rs80 crore in 2004-05.
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Tarapore slams move to transfer SBI ownership
New Delhi: Former RBI deputy governor SS Tarapore has said the move to transfer the ownership of State Bank of India (SBI) from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to the government would be a disaster and that the Parliament should block the transaction.
He said the transfer would be a major setback to the credibility of the financial sector reform process started 15 years back Tarapore, chairman of the Committee on Fuller Capital Account Convertability (FCAC), said at a Ficci seminar.

The committee a few months ago, had urged the government to put the transfer on hold.

Tarapore said though the second Narasimhan Committee had recommended in 1998 that a regulator like the RBI should not be the owner of a bank, it did not mean that a regulator like the RBI should transfer ownership to a bigger regulator like the government he added.

The government already owns 50 per cent of the banking sector and transfer of SBI, which constitutes 25 per cent of the public sector, would only add to its problems, he said.
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DCB a hot property for FIIs
Mumbai: FIIs like ABN Amro Bank, Citigroup Global Markets, Macquarie Bank, Fidelity and Morgan Stanley have picked up a combined 34 per cent stake in Development Credit Bank (DCB) from the open market in the last two weeks.

The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) scooped the stakes in DCB in 13 trading sessions, from the listing of the bank's stock on October 27 to November 14.

Morgan Stanley topped the list with 9.94 million shares, representing 12.96 per cent stake. Fidelity was ranked the second in the chart with acquisition of 6 million or 7.88 per cent stake in DCB.

The two were followed by ABN Amro Bank with 2.28 million shares (2.99 per cent), Citigroup 6.4 million ( 8.47 per cent) and Macquarie Bank 1.2 million (1.57 per cent).

The FII-led frenzied buying helped the DCB stock gain 100 per cent over the issue price of Rs26. The stock on Wednesday closed at Rs54.20 on the BSE, 1.90 per cent lower than yesterday's close of Rs55.25.

The DCB stock, on October 27, listed on the BSE at Rs35.35, at nearly 36 per cent premium over the issue price of Rs26.
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