Rupee weakens marginally
Mumbai: The rupee weakened by around 4 paise but still remained close to the eight - year high mark at 42.87 on Wednesday against the previous close at 42.83. The Indian currency opened at 42.80/81, saw an intra-day low of 42.93 before closing at 42.87. Market participants expect the rupee to appreciate to 42.75.

In the forwards, the 6-month premia closed at 4.93 per cent (5 per cent) and the 12-month closed at 3.99 per cent (4.04 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices fell by about 20 paise and yields advanced by three basis points as traders booked profits ahead of the Rs10,000-crore auction tomorrow. Liquidity was comfortable in the banking system as banks offered to park over Rs40,000 crore with the RBI.

G-secs: The 8.07 per cent-10 year-2017 paper opened at Rs100.39 (8.01 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs100.10 (8.05 per cent YTM) against Rs100.32 (8.02 per cent YTM) on Tuesday.

The 7.37 per cent- 7 year-2014 paper opened at Rs96.45 (8.04 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs96.30 (8.07 per cent YTM) against Rs96.47 (8.04 per cent YTM) on Tuesday.

Call rates: The inter-bank call rate cooled to 3.5 per cent after scaling a peak of over 75 per cent-in the last week of March.

Call rates: Call rates closed at 3.50-3.75 per cent on Wednesday against the previous close at 5-5.50 per cent.

In the first one-day reverse repo auction, RBI received 23 bids for Rs24,875 crore while it accepted Rs1,992 crore (against the limit of Rs2,000 crore).

In the second-one day reverse repo auction, the RBI received bids 21 worth Rs18,545 crore but accepted Rs1,008 crore (against the limit of Rs1,000 crore).

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 459 trades aggregating Rs24,606.90 crore in the 1 per cent-5.50 per cent range.
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IFCI becomes more attractive to overseas investors
New Delhi: Overseas funds and institutions, as well as domestic entities, are showing greater interest in IFCI and are trying to come on board as a "strategic investor" in the term-lending institution.

The prospect of acquiring up to a 51-per cent stake along with management rights in the company might be an important factor for the surge in interest, said sources privy to the mandate given by IFCI to the Advisor, Ernst & Young.

Last month, IFCI had appointed Ernst &Young to advise it on the induction of a strategic investor in the company.

Already six domestic and 7-8 foreign institutions and funds have sounded out Ernst & Young that they are keen to participate in the EoI and information memorandum process. As on December 31, 2006, banks / financial institutions held a 13.30-per cent stake, insurance companies a 15-per cent stake, FIIs 10.27 per cent stake and mutual funds / UTI held 1.75 per cent stake in IFCI. Individual shareholders in aggregate held about 45 per cent, while bodies corporate owned about 15 per cent.

A number of entities / institutions with public sector character had holdings of over one per cent in the company. These include LIC (8.40 per cent), IDBI (6.56 per cent stake), Oriental Insurance Company (1.38 per cent), General Insurance Corporation (2.53 per cent), New India Assurance Company (1.40 per cent) and SBI (1.50 per cent). During calendar 2007, IFCI sold seven per cent stake in the NSE and eight per cent stake in ICRA to raise resources.

During the nine-month period ended 31 December, 2006, IFCI reported net profit of Rs229.39 crore on a total income of Rs952.59 crore against a net loss of Rs72.99 crore on a total income of Rs904.86 crore during the same period in the previous year.
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Yes Bank to offer crop insurance products in tie up with AIC
New Delhi: Yes Bank has tied up with state-owned Agriculture Insurance Company of India (AIC) to sell the latter's crop insurance products.

AIC would offer customised insurance products to Yes Bank customers subject to insurance regulator IRDA's approval.

Yes Bank managing director and CEO Rana Kapoor said the bank would use supply chain of its customers to sell the products.

The bank would have a dedicated team of 175-200 people for this purpose by September this year, who would work with agri clients of the bank, Kapoor said.

AIC also sells its products through ITC Chaupals, but Yes Bank is the first one to sign a bancassurance deal with it.
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