Rupee dips - G-Secs rise
Mumbai: The rupee ended at its intra-day high of 43.75/7525, against Tuesday's close of 43.72/73.
Forward markets: The six-month premium closed at 1.78 per cent (1.71 per cent) and the 12-month premium closed at 1.47 per cent (1.44 per cent).

G-Secs: The market saw volumes of Rs2,900 crore of which the 10-year 2015 benchmark accounted for only Rs25 crore. The 7.38 per cent 10-year benchmark 2015 government paper closed at 102.82, against Tuesday's close at Rs102.74/75. The new 6.85 per cent 7-year 2012 paper was more actively traded. After opening at Rs100.04 (6.85 YTM), it closed at 99.7050 (6.90 YTM).

Call rates: The inter bank rates remained unchanged at 4.75 per cent.

CBLO market: 172 trades aggregating Rs6,887.35 crore were realized in the rate range of 4.60-4.80 per cent.
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S&P backs RBI draft guidelines on NPA sales
Mumbai: Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has said that Reserve Bank of India's draft guidelines on the sale and purchase of non-performing assets (NPAs) by banks, issued on Tuesday, is a move in the right direction toward better enforcement of the quality of assets in the banking sector.

The proposed guidelines also highlight the continued vigilance of RBI in its supervisory activities. Although the draft guidelines have yet to be finalised they aim to improve quality and disclosure of banks' reported assets, according to S&P.

This will be achieved through allowing the sale or transfers of NPAs to be conducted on a clean basis, without any form of recourse to the selling bank.
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OBC targets Rs.1 lakh crore business for the fiscal
Hyderabad: With a significant reduction in operating losses of the erstwhile Global Trust Bank (GTB) during the quarter ended March 2005, the Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) has set itself a target of achieving Rs1 lakh crore business for the combined entity for the current fiscal. This will mark a growth of nearly 25 per cent over the Rs76,000 crore business during the fiscal 2004-05.

OBC officials say that the operating losses of GTB had come down to Rs11 crore during the last quarter from Rs69 crore in the previous quarter. Further, GTB also recorded substantial growth in deposits from Rs4,000 crore to Rs7,500 crore after its acquisition by OBC. They also said that they expect GTB to start recording operating profits from the next quarter onwards. Further, they said that OBC expects to cover the deficit arising out of GTB acquisition to be covered in 12-18 months.

Stating that only 11 out of a total of 104 branches of GTB were currently empowered to lend, while the balance branches were completely focusing on deposit mobilisation, officials said, OBC has now decided empower all the branches of GTB and turn them into lending branches.

With the help of these measures, OBC expects to clock a growth rate of over 25 per cent and close the current financial year at a business level of Rs 1-lakh crore.

The capital adequacy ratio of OBC, which stood at around 16 per cent before its acquisition of GTB, has come down to around nine per cent plus after the acquisition. In order to augment its capital adequacy ratio and also to become Basel-II accord compliant the bank will require further capital. Accordingly, the bank will be going in for a second public issue.
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