Rupee weak
Mumbai: The rupee fell by by almost seven paise on Wednesday mainly due to the fall in the stock market. The currency opened at 44.35/36, touched an intra-day low of 44.37 to finally close at 44.27/28, against the previous close of 44.21 on Tuesday.

G-secs: The six-month forward premia closed at 3.44 per cent (3.41 per cent) and the one-year closed at 3.15 per cent (3.11 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices crashed by around 70 paise due to rising government borrowing for the next fiscal. The budgeted net borrowing through the auction of dated securities (excluding Treasury Bills) is Rs1.09 lakh crore in 2007-08, against Rs1.07 lakh crore in the current year.

G-secs: The 8.07 per cent-10 year-2017 benchmark paper opened at Rs101.40 (7.86 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs100.55 (7.99 per cent YTM), against Tuesday's close at Rs101.21 (7.89 per cent YTM).

The 7.37 per cent-7 year-2014 paper opened at Rs97.15 (7.9 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs96.63 (7.99 per cent YTM), against the previous close at Rs96.98 (7.93 per cent YTM).

Call rates: Call rates were steady at 6-6.10 per cent. The liquidity was good said market participants.

Reverse repo: In the first one-day reverse repo auction, the RBI received and accepted five bids for Rs2,095 crore. In the second one-day reverse repo auction, the RBI received and accepted thirty-four bids for Rs22,185 crore. There were no repo bids.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 338 trades aggregating to Rs20,100.75 crore in the 5.71-6.00 per cent range.
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Senior citizens to get help from reverse mortgage of property
Chennai: The Budget proposal regarding a reverse mortgage product to be introduced by National Housing Bank will provide an avenue for Senior citizens to extract value out of their property without selling it off.

Bankers said the "reverse mortgage" product is one where a senior citizen can mortgage his or her property and receive either a lump sum or regular instalments from the lender. This can be either for a fixed period or until the time the senior citizen dies.

After the fixed period or the demise of the senior citizen, the bank or the lender gets to recover its "loan", by selling the property.

This method of helping the elderly meet their living expenses is said to be very popular in the US and UK.

The Finance Minister said steps would be taken to set up mortgage guarantee companies which will benefit banks and housing finance companies, by providing them a greater degree of comfort.
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Weaker sections to get home loans of Rs20,000 at 4 per cent
Mumbai: Weaker sections of the society will now be able to access housing loans of Rs20,000 at just four per cent rate of interest. While some bankers feel the financial inclusion of the poor will have only a negligible impact on their balance sheets, others maintain it could trigger a strong demand straining a tight resources position.

Under the "Differential Rate of Interest (DRI) scheme" banks provide finance at a rate of four per cent to the weaker sections of the community engaged in gainful occupations. The Union Budget has proposed to raise the limit of the loan from Rs6, 500 to Rs15, 000 and that of the housing loan from Rs5,000 to Rs20,000 per beneficiary.
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