Rupee ends marginally lower
Mumbai: The rupee moved in a range against the dollar and traded between 44.55 and 44.60. The rupee opened lower at 44.62 and closed at 44.59/60 against the previous close of 44.55/56.

There was oil-related buying by foreign banks in the second session, said a forex dealer. The rupee could drop to 44.7 levels in the next few days, said dealers.

The six-month forward premia closed at 3.28 per cent (3.05 per cent) and the one-year closed at 2.83 per cent (2.69 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices remained almost unchanged on few trades. Total traded volumes on the order matching system were Rs1,035 crore (Rs2,800 crore).

After market hours, the Bank of England raised its benchmark interest rate by 0.25-percentage point to 5.25 per cent. Dealers said the hike was unexpected and could extend the bearish phase in the Indian market on Friday.

The European Central Bank is also expected to signal its policy on interest rates, late Thursday.

G-secs: The 7.59-9 year-2016 paper opened at Rs100.35 (7.53 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs100.35 (7.53 per cent YTM), against Wednesday's Rs100.35 (7.53 per cent YTM). The 8.07 per cent-10 year-2016 paper was not traded as it is in the shut-period.

Call rates: Call rate was unchanged at 8-8.25 per cent. Banks borrowed over Rs19,000 crore from the RBI at 7.25 per cent against Rs18,000 crore on Wednesday. Liquidity is expected to be under pressure on Friday as banks will cover for the weekend. An auction related outflow of Rs4,000 crore on Monday will also make money scarce, said dealers.

Reverse repo: In the first one-day reverse-repo auction under LAF, the RBI received no bids while in the repo auction it received and accepted 19 bids for Rs7,775 crore. In the second one-day reverse-repo auction, the bank received and accepted three bids for Rs125 crore and in the second one-day repo auction it received and accepted 18 bids for Rs11,240 crore.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 289 trades aggregating Rs18,467.3 crore in the 7.21-7.49 per cent range.
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HDFC Bank Q3 net up 31.7 per cent
Mumbai: HDFC Bank has registered a 31.74 per cent rise in third quarter net profit to Rs295.64 crore for the quarter ended December 31 against Rs224.4 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous year, on a rise in net interest income, assets and an improvement in net interest margin.

The bank earned a total income of Rs2,132.6 crore (Rs1,475.9 crore). Net interest income has increased by 38.5 per cent to Rs928.6 crore driven by average asset growth of 31.6 per cent and improvement in net interest margin to about 4 per cent, said a statement from the bank.

A rise in fees and commissions, foreign exchange earnings and derivatives transactions, pushed up other income.

Net advances increased by 32.8 per cent to Rs48,201 crore and total deposits by 30.4 per cent to Rs66,749 crore. Gross retail loans now form 52 per cent of gross advances of the bank.
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Mahindra Fin sets up rural housing finance unit
Mumbai: Mahindra Finance which provides four-wheeler and tractor financing for the semi-urban and rural sectors, has set up a 100-per cent owned subsidiary for rural housing finance, called, Mahindra Rural Housing Finance Ltd.

The new subsidiary is waiting for a licence from the National Housing Bank to commence operations.

The new subsidiary will cater to the rising demand for home loans from semi-urban and rural areas by tapping initially rural markets in Maharashtra, Gujarat and one of the southern states.

Based on the response generated, the company will upscale operations using the existing chain of 394 branches of Mahindra Finance.
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