Rupee flat
Mumbai: The rupee ended unchanged on Monday after opening at around 44.13 and touched an intra-day high of 44.15, to finally close at 44.10/11, against Friday's close at 44.11/12.

The dollar was strong against the overseas currencies, euro and pound.

The six-month forward premia closed at 3.37 per cent (3.42 per cent) and the one-year at 3 per cent (3.03 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices of long dated securities rose by over 40 paise on expectations of good demand for papers in this segment in the Rs9,000 crore auction on Friday. Total traded volumes on the order matching system were Rs3,195 crore (Rs3,570 crore).

G-secs: The 8.33 per cent-29 year-2036 paper opened at Rs103.45 (8.02 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs103.90 (7.98 per cent YTM), against Friday's Rs103.44 (8.02 per cent YTM).

The 8.07 per cent-10 year-2017 paper opened at Rs102.43 (7.71 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs102.43 (7.71 per cent YTM), against the previous close at Rs102.60 (7.69 per cent YTM).

Call rates: Call rates ruled unchanged at the previous close of 7.8-7.9 per cent.

Reverse repo: In the first one-day reverse-repo auction under LAF, the RBI received and accepted two bids for Rs40 crore and in the first one-day repo auction, the RBI received and accepted 12 bids for Rs8,105 crore.

In the second one-day reverse repo auction, the RBI accepted and received four bids for Rs60 crore and in the second one-day repo auction, the RBI received and accepted seven bids for Rs2,350 crore.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 364 trades aggregating to Rs21,275.40 crore in the 7.30 per cent-7.52 per cent range.
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FM asks banks to hold interest rates
New Delhi: Finance minister P Chidambaram has asked state-run banks not to raise home loan interest rates after the Reserve Bank raised repo rates last week. He also asked banks shift lending away from sectors where authorities want to curb credit growth.

Speaking after a quarterly review meeting with the chairmen of the state-run banks, Chidambaram said there was enough cash in the banking system, which would ease the pressure on the banks to raise rates.

He later told the press that the banks had assured him they would not raise mortgage rates and would rebalance their loan books over the next six months.

Last week, the Reserve Bank of India raised its key short-term lending rate to 7.50 per cent, the highest in four years. The RBI also raised the provisions for bank loans for capital market exposures, credit cards, personal loans and real estate -- but it excluded home loans from the additional provisioning.
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New pension fund schemes for centre, 19 states
New Delhi: The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) will implement new pension schemes for the Centre and 19 state governments which have subscribed to the pension funds. The PFRDA said it would appoint Central Record Keeping Agencies (CRAs) and four fund managers for operating the pension funds.

This would be done in the next three months through an executive order route since the PFRDA Bill is getting delayed in Parliament.

PFRDA estimates the domestic pension business to touch Rs2 lakh crore in the next couple of years with the new pension schemes in place. The pension fund managers would be drawn from public sectors companies including State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Life Insurance Corporation, among others.

The PFRDA has already created an initial corpus of Rs1,500 crore for the new pension fund schemes that will offer returns to their subscribers in the range of 14-29 per cent.
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Vijaya Bank to raise Rs500 crore
New Delhi: Vijaya Bank plans to raise Rs500 crore through a mix of tier-I and tier-II capital. The amount would be used to fund business growth.

After it raises the capital of about Rs500 crore, Vijaya Bank's capital adequacy ratio is likely to improve from 11.37 per cent to about 12 per cent.
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UTI Bank launches Gift Card
Mumbai: UTI Bank has launched a rupee denominated, non-reloadable UTI Bank Gift Card, based on the Visa Electron platform.

Available off the shelf for even non-bank customers, the card is valid for two years and can be loaded with a minimum amount of Rs1,000 and thereafter in multiples of Rs100 upto a maximum load of Rs50,000.

The bank said that while a gift voucher or gift cheque restricts holders to one merchant establishment, the Gift Card is accepted at 1.30 lakh Visa-enabled outlets and can be used as many times till the loaded amount is exhausted.

However, the card cannot be used at ATMs to withdraw cash. The issue price for a card is Rs100 or one per cent of the loaded amount, whichever is higher. UTI Bank has a debit card portfolio of 57 lakh cards. In the past it has launched foreign currency travel card, remittance card and corporate pre-paid card.
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SBI to raise $700 million through bonds overseas
New Delhi: The State Bank of India plans to raise $700 million by March this year through bonds overseas, the chairman and managing director O P Bhatt said. He said the bank may go for a follow-on public offer in 2007-08. This could be a combination of both public offer and rights issue.

The borrowing is part of the $2 billion medium term note programme of SBI.

He said the bank will be able to maintain net interest margin of 3 per cent for 2006-07. The bank's asset liability committee will review interest rates other than housing loan rates, he said.

State Bank of India (SBI) has hired Barclays Plc and Citigroup Inc to sell dollar-denominated bonds, less than a week after Standard & Poor's (S&P) raised its ratings to investment grade.

Deutsche Bank AG and HSBC Holdings Plc will also manage the sale, SBI's first of hybrid bonds, which are securities that combine debt and equity.

The four banks will also arrange a sale of five-year notes, according to a document sent to the investors. The amounts have not been determined.
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