Rupee gains
Mumbai: The rupee gained by almost two paise against the dollar as exporters sold large amounts of the US currency. The rupee opened at 44.30/32, touched an intra-day low of 44.34 to finally close at 44.20/21 against Thursday's 44.23/24.

A dealer with a bank said the market was cautious ahead of the Credit Policy and expects a 25 basis points rise in repo.

The six-month forward premia closed at 3.87 per cent (3.97 per cent) and the one-year closed at 3.22 per cent (3.31 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices fell by more than 15 paise ahead of the quarterly review of the monetary policy on Wednesday. Total traded volumes on the order matching system were Rs1,050 crore. Market participants were apprehensive ahead of the monetary policy and were cutting their positions. The domestic bond market was also tracking the hardening US 10-year yield, which inched up to 4.87 per cent (4.8 per cent).

G-secs: The 8.07 per cent-10 year-2017 benchmark paper opened at Rs101.12 (7.9 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs101.14 (7.9 per cent YTM), down from the previous close at Rs101.32 (7.87 per cent YTM).

The 7.59 per cent-9 year-2016 paper opened at Rs98.10 (7.88 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs97.97 (7.9 per cent YTM), against the previous close at Rs98.24 (7.86 per cent YTM).

Call rates: The inter-bank call rate closed at 7.7-7.9 per cent (7.8-8 per cent).

Reverse repo: In the first two-day reverse-repo auction under LAF, the RBI received and accepted one bid for Rs35 crore and in the repo auction, it received and accepted 11 bids for Rs2,895 crore.

In the second two-day reverse-repo auction, the RBI accepted and received five bids for Rs730 crore and in the repo auction, it received and accepted 8 bids for Rs2,280 crore.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 338 trades aggregating Rs19,907.25 crore in the 7-7.27 per cent range.
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IndusInd Bank to float GDR to raise Rs200 crore
Mumbai: IndusInd Bank plans to float a GDR issue towards the end of this quarter to raise about Rs190-200 crore of fresh Tier-I capital and will bring down promoters' stake by almost 3 per cent to 28 per cent from 31.34 per cent.

The bank recorded a 20.97 per cent drop in net profit at Rs21.63 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2006 against Rs27.37 crore. The bank said the drop in net profit was mainly on account of distortions arising from a tax credit of Rs19 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Total income rose to Rs472.3 crore (Rs352.18 crore) and other income, including commission, exchange and brokerage for the quarter stood at Rs92.98 crore (Rs55.98 crore). Costly deposits pushed down net interest income by 15.03 per cent to Rs62.81 crore, while non-interest income grew to Rs218 crore (Rs180 crore). Net interest margin dipped to 1.27 per cent (1.78 per cent) as the average cost of deposits went up to 6.62 per cent from 5.84 per cent.

Deposits stood at Rs15,942 crore (Rs13,780 crore) and advances at Rs11,268 crore (Rs9,196 crore).

IndusInd Bank's scrip closed at Rs53.20, down from previous close of Rs55.45 on the BSE.
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Catholic Syrian in stake sale plan
Mumbai: The Kerala-based Catholic Syrian Bank is seeking the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) permission to sell a 15 per cent stake in the bank to AIF Capital Development, a Mauritius-registered private equity firm.

With a loan portfolio of Rs2,694 crore as on March 31, 2006, the bank hopes to get clearance from the RBI to have a single shareholder owning more than 10 per cent stake as has been allowed in Yes Bank and Centurion Bank of Punjab.

The Netherlands-based Rabobank owns a 19.29 per cent stake in Yes Bank, while Bank Muscat owns a 17.76 per cent stake in Centurion.

AIF Capital Development has already obtained clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). The government's guidelines allow up to 74 per cent foreign ownership in banks.
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UCO Bank net up marginally
Kolkata: UCO Bank has posted a net profit of Rs122.95 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal, marginally up from Rs112.51 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The bank's total income for the quarter stood at Rs1,479.14 crore compared with Rs1,241.32 crore at the end of the third quarter ended December 2005 representing an increase of 19.16 per cent.

Net profit for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2006 was Rs285.16 crore, up from Rs255.39 crore recorded at the end of the corresponding period of last year. At the end of December 2006, the bank's capital adequacy ratio stood at 12.65 per cent.

The bank has set NPA targets - 2.58 per cent gross and 1.59 per cent net - for the year.
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Andhra Bank net up at Rs136.3 crore
Hyderabad: Andhra Bank has posted a net profit of Rs136.28 crore for the third quarter ended December 2006, up marginally from Rs128.86 crore achieved during the comparative quarter of last year. Its total business stood at Rs61,000 crore at the end of the quarter. The bank registered a total income of Rs945.62 crore (Rs817.5 crore) and total expenses (excluding provisions and contingencies) stood at Rs684.89 crore (Rs614.53 crore). The operating profit for the quarter under review was Rs260.73 crore (Rs202.97 crore).
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