Rupee gains marginally
Mumbai: The rupee moved up slightly against the dollar on inflows of the US currency. The rupee opened at 40.45/47 and touched an intra day high of 40.43. It then dropped to close the day at 40.50, against Monday's close at 40.51/52.

Dealers said the RBI may have intervened to prevent the rupee from appreciating beyond its intra day high.

Forwards: In forwards, the six-month premium ended at 3.05 per cent (3.18 per cent) and the 12-month ended at 3 per cent (3.09 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices fell by around 20 paise on profit booking. Total traded volumes on the order matching system were Rs3,120 crore (Rs5,875 crore). Traders were booking profits after the 40 paise rally on Monday. Dealers said the surplus liquidity in the system, made it a certainty that there will be a Market Stabilisation Auction next week.

The 8.07 per cent-10 year-2017 paper opened at Rs100 (8.07 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs99.82 (8.09 per cent YTM), against Monday's close at Rs100.03 (8.06 per cent YTM).

The 7.38 per cent-8 year-2015 paper opened at Rs95.82 (8.08 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs95.50 (8.13 per cent YTM), against the previous close at Rs95.75 (8.09 per cent YTM).
Call rates: The inter bank call rate eased to 4-4.25 per cent (5.75-6).

Reverse repo: In the first one-day reverse repo auction, the RBI received 20 bids for Rs18,275 crore while it accepted only Rs2,000 crore.

In the second one-day reverse repo auction, the central bank received 20 bids for Rs14,995 crore while it accepted Rs994 crore. There were no repo bids in the first and second one-day auctions.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 526 trades aggregating Rs27,671.45 crore in the 1.35-5 per cent range.
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LIC chooses Corporation Bank as partner for credit card business
Mumbai: Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has finalised the Mangalore-based Corporation Bank as a partner for its credit card foray. LIC is also in talks to bring in other players to manage the venture. The Corporation Bank will only be an investor in the card venture.

The insurance behemoth will hold a "majority" stake in the card company with Corporation Bank expected to hold up to 20 per cent stake.

LIC also holds 26 per cent stake in Corporation Bank.
LIC is interested in holding a majority stake in the venture, but owing to regulatory glitches it is likely to hold around 49 per cent stake, said sources.
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Citigroup to sell HDFC loans
Mumbai: The US-based financial services giant Citigroup's Indian branches will sell HDFC's home loans alongside their own mortgage loan products and are also helping HDFC in its asset management business.

Banking source said Citigroup and HDFC have signed an operating agreement, based on which the US financial services group would start selling HDFC home loans.

HDFC and Citigroup also plan to expand their business relationship to cross-selling of more products, but HDFC will have to ensure that its dealings with the US financial services provider are not in conflict with HDFC Bank, promoted by it.

Citigroup acquired 9.27 per cent stake in HDFC from Standard Life in May 2006 for Rs3,021 crore to raise its stake to 12.3 per cent.

When HDFC decided earlier this month to make a preferential allotment to private equity investor Carlyle Group, Citigroup sought a preferential allotment to it to ensure its stake in HDFC remains at 12.3 per cent after the allotment to Carlyle.
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Piaggio enters into pact with SBI for vehicle finance
Hyderabad: Piaggio Vehicles has tied up with State Bank of India (SBI) for extending finance options to the customers and is targeting a 30 per cent jump in the sales of its `Ape' range of three-wheelers this year.

As part of the tie-up, SBI would offer finance to customers on both commercial and passenger vehicles of Ape range of three-wheelers in all branches across the country.

The finance schemes are offered with an interest rate of Rs11.5 per cent.

Company officials said if seen in the market terminology of flat rates, the interest would work out to around 8 per cent and there are no hidden charges. The bank would extend 85 per cent of the on-road price of the vehicle as loan.
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