Rupee weakens
Mumbai: The rupee weakened by almost five to six paise due to weakness in equity markets. The rupee opened at 44.1750/18, touched an intra-day high of 44.15, to finally end at 44.20/21 against Monday's close of 44.15/16.

The six-month forward premia closed at 3.12 per cent (3.02 per cent) and the one-year at 2.92 per cent (2.89 per cent).

Bonds: 13 Bond prices fell by around 85 paise day reacting to statements by Dr Rakesh Mohan, deputy governor, Reserve Bank of India, on inflation being a concern.

The RBI hiked the Cash Reserve Ratio from 5.50 per cent to 6 per cent (in two phases). CRR is a portion of bank deposits maintained withheld by the RBI for free. The central bank had in its quarterly review of the monetary policy on January 31 maintained that its focus would be on liquidity management.

G-secs: The 8.07-10 year-2017 paper opened at Rs101.50 (7.85 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs100.75 (7.96 per cent YTM), down from Monday's close at Rs101.60 (7.83 per cent YTM).

The 7.37 per cent-7 year-2014 paper opened at Rs97.30 (7.87 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs96.85 (7.95 per cent YTM), against Monday's Rs97.38 (7.85 per cent YTM). Total traded volumes on the order matching system were at Rs2,290 crore (Rs1,640 crore)

Call rates: Call rates remained unchanged at 6.50-6.60 per cent from the previous close.

Reverse repo: In the first one - day reverse repo auction under the LAF, the Reserve Bank of India received and accepted two bids. In the second one - day reverse repo auction, the RBI received and accepted eight bids. There were no repo bids in the first and second one-day auction. CBLO: The CBLO market saw 353 trades aggregating to Rs21,787.55 crore in the 6.30 - 6.64 percent range.
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RBI raises CRR by 0.5 per cent
Mumbai: To contain inflationary trends and suck out excess liquidity from the banking system, RBI hiked cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 0.5 per cent in two stages.

This is the second instance in the last three months that the apex bank has raised CRR, the amount of money that commercial banks have to keep with the RBI, to curb excess liquidity.

The CRR hike will come into effect from February 17 and March 3 respectively with 0.25 per cent hike in each stage.

In the first stage, the CRR will be hiked from 5.5 per cent to 5.75 per cent while in the second it will be hiked to 6 per cent, the RBI said.

The move is expected to suck out Rs14,000 crore of excess liquidity from the system.
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ICICI branch's assets to cross $5 billion
Dubai: India's largest private bank ICICI Bank is opening more branches and ATMs in Bahrain as part of its expansion drive. The bank, which started its operations in the country two-and-a-half years ago, is witnessing record growth with its balance sheet set to cross USD 5 billion.

ICICI Bank's Bahrain branch's balance sheet which stood at USD 1.6 billion during the last financial year, ending March 2006, has now grown to nearly USD 5 billion said bank officials. The officials said the balance sheet represents the business booked out of Bahrain, which has emerged as a hub of the bank's activities in the region.
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UBI in talks with IDBI, Sharekhan for online broking
Kolkata: United Bank of India (UBI) has signed an agreement with Franklin Templeton for distributing the latter's products.

"This alliance will help us to reach out to retail investors who hitherto did not have access to our investment products," said Vivek Kudva, president, Franklin Templeton India.

UBI is also looking at providing online stock broking services to customers in association with a leading broking firm. The bank, which hopes to expand its suite of capital market-related services, is in talks with well-known brokers like IDBI Capital Markets and Sharekhan.

Both IDBI Cap and Sharekhan have expanded their operations in recent times, foraying into newer business segments. Both provide Internet-based services. UBI will also provide demat services, thanks to an arrangement being worked out with CDSL, the depository. Further, it hopes to become a service provider for investors in mutual funds who require MIN, the identification number mandatory for investments above Rs50,000.
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Federal Bank's 1:1 rights issue approved
Mumbai: The board of directors of Federal Bank has approved a 1:1 rights issue to raise its share capital, the bank said in a statement.
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