Rupee weakens
Mumbai: The rupee fell by almost 16 paise on Wednesday due to dollar demand from foreign banks on behalf of oil companies.

The rupee opened at 44.49/50, touched an intra-day low of 44.71, to finally close at 44.69/70, against the previous close of 44.53 on Monday.

In forwards, the six-month closed at 2.05 per cent (2.18 per cent) while the 12-month ended at 1.98 per cent (2.06 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices were range-bound before flattening out. The market is expecting inflation to be in the 5.40 per cent-5.50 per cent range. Dealers said the bond market would continue to find support with the ten-year yield between 7.38 per cent and 7.40 per cent.

G-secs: The 7.59 per cent-10 year-2016 paper opened at Rs 101.345 (7.39 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs 101.35 (7.39 per cent YTM), lower than Tuesday's Rs 101.38 (7.38 per cent YTM). The 8.07 per cent-11 year-2017 paper opened at Rs 104.73 (7.39 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs 104.75 (7.39 per cent YTM), against Tuesday's Rs 104.77 (7.39 per cent YTM).
Call rates: Call rates ruled unchanged between 6.05 per cent and 6.15 per cent.

Reverse repo: In the first one-day reverse-repo auction under LAF, the RBI received and accepted eight bids for Rs 2850 crore. There were no repo bids. In the second one-day reverse-repo auction, the RBI accepted and received 27 bids for Rs. 31,405 crore.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 309 trades aggregating to Rs. 17,877.20 crore in the 5.75-6 per cent range.
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EPF trustees expected to take decision on interest rate
New Delhi: The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of the employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will meet on Thursday to decide on the rate of interest to be paid to the nearly four crore provident fund subscribers for fiscal 2006-07.

The labour minister as the chairman of the board is expected to go by the majority decision and is likely to reduce interest rate to 8 per cent from 8.5 per cent paid in 2005-06. Last year too the interest rate was cut from the earlier level of 9.5 per cent.

According to a member of the subcommittee, the resources do not support paying 8.5 per cent. According to sources, the employers' representatives and the Government representatives on the CBT are expected to recommend a reduction while the trade unions would demand higher rates.
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Moser Baer may receive investment from IFC
Chennai: The private equity arm of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is considering investing $22 million (Rs 100 crore) in a project of Moser Baer India, which manufactures recordable optical storage media products such as compact discs and DVDs.

The funding is for the $92-million (Rs 414 crore) Moser Baer Photo Voltaic Ltd (a subsidiary of Moser Baer) project to set up an export-oriented solar photovoltaic (PV) cells and module — for generating electricity from sunlight — manufacturing facility with an installed capacity of 80 MW.

The initial outlay will be around $58 million and IFC is considering an investment of $22.5 million `A' loan to support the project.

The project is located in a special economic zone adjacent to Moser Baer's existing plant in the New Okhla Industrial Development Area industrial estate in Uttar Pradesh, 27 km from Delhi.

The first phase of 40 MW is expected to go into trial production in the next couple of months.

IFC, an existing shareholder in Moser Baer, funded the company in 2000.
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Govt to support United Bank capital rejig
Kolkata: The Finance Minster P Chidambaram said the United Bank of India (UBI) will get all support from the finance ministry for restructuring its capital, thereby facilitating enlistment of its shares in the stock exchanges at the earliest.

He praised the bank for its performance in the last few years but advised the bank authority to double its size of business from Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 100,000 crore in the next six years.

Though UBI had to overcome difficult periods since its formation in 1956 and had even been able to pay a maiden dividend to the government for 2006 , Chidambaram felt that it needed to improve the quality and productivity of its human resources (staff and employees) for improving its competitive edge vis-à-vis other banks. He added that the competition would be more severe in the coming years following gradual opening up of the banking sector.
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Maruti to promote scheme for NRIs through bank tie-ups
Mumbai: Maruti Udyog has tied up with SBI, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank for easy finance options to prospective NRIs opting for the `NRI Dil se' scheme. The company currently has a tie-up with Citibank. The NRI scheme launched in July 2006 is primarily targeted at Indians residing abroad. Under it, NRIs can gift cars to their nominees residing in India.

The company is offering 90 per cent of the ex-show room price with an EMI starting as low as $99.
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Transporters to pay more for insurance
New Delhi: With deregulation of motor insurance transporters will see their insurance bill jump 150 per cent because of a hike in third-party premium. While the cost of cover for third-party liability has gone up for car owners as well, the impact will be more than offset by lower rates for comprehensive (or what the industry calls own damage) insurance when the tariff is dismantled from January 2007.

Motor third-party insurance is a loss-making portfolio for insurers and commercial vehicle owners have been the biggest contributors to losses in this segment.

Transporters have not yet responded to the IRDA move but may protest.

A motor insurance pool has been created to spread risks across companies through a pool. It is also expected to stabilise any increase in the premium rates in a free pricing regime by having a virtual ceiling.
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