Rupee firms up
Mumbai: The rupee moved up against the dollar by almost nine paise on Friday on strong FII inflows.

The rupee opened at around 44.66/67, and traded in an intra-day range of around 44.65-70 due to moderate demand for dollars. It finally closed at 44.66 against the previous close of 44.73/74. In forwards, the six-month premium closed at 2.10 per cent (2.18 per cent) and the one-year at 1.99 per cent (2.03 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices were flat on concerns over higher crude oil prices. Total traded volumes on the order matching system were Rs4,490 crore (Rs4,795 crore).

Traders were not taking aggressive positions in anticipation of the Rs9,000 crore auction, to be held between December 1 and 8.

G-secs: The 7.59 per cent - 10 year-2016 paper opened at Rs101.20 (7.41 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs101.08 (7.42 per cent YTM), against Thursday's Rs101.07 (7.43 per cent YTM). The 8.07 per cent-11 year-2017 paper opened at Rs104.67 (7.40 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs104.53 (7.42 per cent YTM), slightly lower than Thursday's close at Rs104.57 (7.42 per cent YTM).

Call rates: The call rate was unchanged at 6.10 per cent-6.20 per cent.

Reverse repo: In the first three-day reverse-repo auction under LAF, the RBI received and accepted five bids for Rs1,560 crore. There were no repo bids. In the second three-day reverse-repo auction, the RBI accepted and received 32 bids for Rs22,970 crore.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 341 trades aggregating to Rs18,374 crore in the 5.45-6 per cent range.
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Citibank starts biometric ATMs
Mumbai: Targeting micro-finance customers, Citibank has launched two biometric ATMs in Mumbai and Hyderabad, which authorize transactions by scanning customers' thumbprints instead of a PIN code. Biometric ATMs have multiple language capabilities and have voice-enabled navigation facility aimed at illiterate customers. The colour-coded buttons (yellow for deposit, green for withdrawal) guide customers through the transaction - balance enquiry, deposits and withdrawals. Citibank has tied up with MFIs such as Basix in Hyderabad and Swadhaar Finaccess in Mumbai.

The ATMs are located at the offices of the MFIs or in areas where customers live or work. Citibank aims to establish a network of 25 to 35 such ATMs within a year, specifically targeted at its Citibank `Pragati' savings account holders.

Citibank `Pragati' is a no-frills savings account with nil minimum balance and is offered directly or through a micro-finance institution (MFI).

Customers would not be charged for transactions on such ATMs. In the past couple of months, the Citibank `Pragati' has won 700 customers and hopes to log in 50,000 customers in the next 12 months.

Citibank says it not looking for profits in the initial years. The bank will eventually merge its no-frills accounts with the `Pragati' scheme. Currently Citibank has 60,000 customers in the micro-finance segment.
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Barclays to foray into credit cards in India
Mumbai: UK's third-largest bank, Barclays Plc is planning to launch a credit card and is in talks with Life Insurance Corporation of India to use the latter's huge database by paying royalty.

However, it is not clear whether LIC, which has plans to enter the credit card business, will provide its database to the foreign company.

If the talks with LIC did not materialise, Barclays would go ahead on its own, said sources close to the development.

An LIC executive said it had been approached by many players. "It is too early to comment on a possible tie-up with Barclays," he added.

Barclaycard is the biggest branded credit card operation in Britain, with 11.2 million card holders and about £25 billion lent out at any one time.
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Forex reserves jump by $5.9 b in November
Mumbai: The country's foreign exchange reserves rose sharply by $2.427 billion to $172.782 billion, for the week ended November 24. This is the sixth week in a row that forex reserves have risen and the second consecutive week when they have risen by over $2 billion.

In the previous week, forex reserves moved up by $2.071 billion to touch $170.355 billion. Forex reserves rose by $5.9 billion in the month of November.

V. Rajagopal, chief dealer, Forex, Kotak Mahindra Bank said the climb in forex reserves was mainly due to revaluation of foreign currencies, he said.

FII inflows into the equity markets during the week were around $621.6 million, according to SEBI figures.

According to the Weekly Statistical Supplement of the RBI, foreign currency assets increased by $2.424 billion to touch $166.061 billion for the week under review. Foreign currency assets expressed in US dollar terms include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies (such as euro, sterling and yen) held in reserves.
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