Rupee gains
Mumbai: The rupee gained slightly against the dollar, tracking gains made by the euro.

The domestic currency opened at 44.71 and touched an intra day high of 44.69. It finally closed at 44.71/72, against Tuesday's 44.75/76.

Bonds: Bond prices fell by around two paise (yields rose by almost one basis point) on tight liquidity in the market. Total traded volumes on the order-matching system were at Rs2,225 crore (Rs3,990 crore).

G-secs: The 7.59 per cent 10-year-2016 paper opened at Rs100.05 (7.58 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs100.02 (7.59 per cent YTM) against Rs100.04 (7.58 per cent YTM).

The 8.07 per cent 11-year-2017 paper opened at Rs103.35 (7.59 per cent YTM) and ended at Rs103.35 (7.59 per cent) against Tuesday's close of Rs103.35 (7.59 per cent YTM).

Call rates: Call rates ruled unchanged at 8.10-8.20 per cent. In the first one-day reverse-repo auction under LAF, the RBI received and accepted one bid for Rs10 crore and in the first one-day repo auction, it received and accepted 14 bids for Rs5,830 crore.

Reverse repo: In the second one-day reverse-repo auction, it accepted and received four bids for Rs85 crore and in the second one-day repo auction, it received and accepted 16 bids for Rs5,810 crore.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 364 trades aggregating to Rs19,261.70 crore in the 7.20 per cent-7.35 per cent range.
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SBI offers gold debit card
Mumbai: State Bank of India has introduced a signature-based international debit card with MasterCard, called the SBI Gold Debit MasterCard, for its customers maintaining an average quarterly balance of Rs50,000.
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LIC gives bonus for 2005-06
Mumbai: The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has announced bonus payable to policyholders for 2005-06.

The bonus is higher for long-term policies while whole life policyholders will receive Rs66 per thousand sum assured. In the case of endowment policies it will range from Rs40-46, and for the money back and anticipated endowment policies it will be Rs37 (term of 20 years) and Rs42 (term of 25 years), respectively.

LIC has also declared a final (additional) bonus and loyalty addition for policyholders who have kept their long-term policies in force. The rate of bonus is up to Rs1,680 per thousand sum assured depending on the term and sum assured.

In the financial year 2005-06, LIC reported a surplus of Rs12,404.82 crore after valuation. While 95 per cent of the surplus (Rs11,784.58 crore) will be distributed as bonus to policy holders of `with profit policies', the balance of 5 per cent (Rs620.24 crore) will go to the Government.
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Overseas investment norms relaxed further
Mumbai: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in a release issued today said the overseas remittance have been raised to $50,000 (approximately Rs22.50 lakh) from the present limit of $25,000.

According to issued by the central bank today, the limit of $50,000 under the scheme would also include remittances towards gift and donation by a resident individual, and investment by resident individual in overseas companies.

"The requirement of 10 pc reciprocal shareholding in listed Indian companies by such overseas companies has been dispensed with," the release added.
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Union Bank to pick up a stake in Bank of India's insurance venture
Mumbai: Union Bank of India will be the third partner in the three-way life insurance venture with Bank of India and Japan-based Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance. Union Bank is likely to hold 26 per cent stake in the venture. Bank of India will be the majority partner with 51 per cent equity. The initial capital required for the venture is Rs150-170 crore.

Union Bank and Bank of India recently tied up with IDFC for loan syndication.
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India Infrastructure Company obtains sovereign guarantee to raise Rs5,000-cr
Bangalore: The India Infrastructure Company (IIFCL) has received guarantees from the government for raising Rs5,000 crore to fund large projects.

Official sources said the company has the option of raising the funds either from the domestic or international markets.

IIFCL's funding for projects would be in the form of direct participation in project loan syndications along with the banks or in the form of refinancing support to the lending institutions. This was because bank finance for infrastructure was likely to face asset liability mismatch problems in view of the long lending tenures. The MoUs with the three banks involved providing IIFCL's support in their project lending efforts. This included participation in big-ticket loan syndications. He said that in all the funding arrangements, IIFCL would function on the basis of the credit appraisal and due diligence reports of the banks.
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