Rupee weakens
Mumbai: The rupee weakened slightly on Tuesday on dollar demand from oil companies. The Indian currency opened at around 44.67/69 but oil-related buying pushed down the rupee to an intra-day level of 44.75/76 before ending at 44.69, three paise lower over Monday's close of 44.66.

In forwards, the six-month premium closed at 2.06 per cent (1.95 per cent) and 12-month premium ended at 1.92 per cent (1.80 per cent).

Bonds: The bond market saw some profit-booking and kept prices from building up on the rally over the last two to three days.
Total traded volumes on the NDS-order matching system fell to Rs6,585 crore (Rs11,575 crore).

G-secs: The 7.59 per cent-10 year-2016 paper opened at Rs101.5 (7.36 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs101.39 (7.38 per cent YTM) against the previous close of Rs101.40 (7.38 per cent YTM).

The 8.07 per cent 11-year paper opened at Rs105.02 (7.36 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs104.89 (7.37 per cent YTM) against the previous close of Rs104.90 (7.38 per cent YTM).

Call rates: Call rates stayed put between 6.1 per cent and 6.2 per cent.

Reverse repo: In the first one-day reverse repo auction under the LAF, the Reserve Bank of India received and accepted eight bids for Rs4,365 crore. There were no repo bids. In the second one-day reverse-repo auction, the RBI accepted and received six bids for Rs4,970 crore.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 306 trades aggregating to Rs19, 995.25 crore in the 6-6.07 per cent range.
Back to News Review index page  

Shriram Life forecasts Rs140 crore maiden income
Kochi: Shriram Life Insurance, a joint venture company between Shriram Group and Sanlam Group of South Africa is forecasting a premium collection of Rs140 crore by January 2007 in its first year of operations.

The company, which began operations in January this year, has already collected a premium of Rs105 crore as of November by insuring 70,000 lives during this period, according to Akhila Srinivasan, managing director, Shriram Life Insurance, at a press meet here on Tuesday.

Srinivasan said if the company achieves a collection of Rs140 crore, it would be the largest collection ever registered by a private insurance company in the country in the first year of operations.

The company's focus remains on the southern and western markets of the country. The company has set a target of Rs300 crore next year and would be shortly venturing into general insurance business by April in association with the Sanlam Group.
Back to News Review index page  

Max New York Life eyes micro insurance
New Delhi: Max New York Life Insurance is planning a foray into the micro insurance sector and is looking at the various aspects of micro insurance in terms of product packaging, pricing and chalking out distribution models.

The company is in the early stages of talks with a general insurance company for a tie up for the micro insurance foray.

The company plans to raise its paid-up capital to Rs1,000 crore in next two years and eventually to Rs1,500 crore. Currently, the paid-up capital of the company stands at Rs617 crore.

The company expects to break even by 2008-09. The company, which registered more than 100 per cent growth last year, intends to roll out about seven new products next year.
Back to News Review index page  

New norms may limit indirect lending
Mumbai: Senior private and public sector bankers under the aegis of the Indian Banks' Association (IBA), to evolve a suitable response to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) new draft guidelines on lending to the priority sector, which they feel would make it difficult for them to meet priority sector targets.

The proposed guidelines, said bankers, put limits on banks' lending through indirect routes to meet priority sector targets.

Bankers said there was a mass divergence between the current guidelines and the proposed guidelines. The proposed guidelines will choke priority sector financing through non-banking finance companies and other indirect routes of financing.

The draft defines for the first time, micro credit as provision of credit and other financial services and products of very small amounts not exceeding Rs50,000 per borrower to the poor in rural, semi-urban and urban areas, either directly or through a group mechanism.

Banks' lending to microfinance institutions (MFIs) will not form part of the bank's priority sector advances, as per the definition, said bankers. Bankers said they felt only direct lending would be included which would affect private and foreign banks which have a higher exposure to lending through MFIs.
Back to News Review index page