Rupee weakens - G-Secs volatile
Mumbai: The rupee ended weak against the US dollar, even as the stock market crashed by 219 points, closing at 43.82/83 against the dollar, lower than Wednesday's close of Rs43.75/25.

Forwards market: Up by about 1.5 per cent, with the six-month premium closing at 1.82 per cent (1.78 per cent) and the 12-month premium at 1.55 per cent (1.47 per cent).

Call rates: Unchanged at 4.80 per cent (4.75 per cent).

G-Secs: According to a dealer with a private bank, the 7.38 per cent 10-year 2015 benchmark paper, closed at Rs102.40 (7.05 per cent YTM) against Wednesday's close of Rs102.82.

CBLO market: 201 trades aggregating Rs6,310.30 crore in the rate range of 4.40 per cent to 5.50 per cent were realized.
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BoB to finalise insurance venture - ties up with HP for tech upgrade
Mumbai: The Bank of Baroda (BoB) is close to roping in a third partner for its proposed life insurance business shortly.

According to bank officials, the bank has already tied up with the Oriental Bank of Commerce as its local partner and is in advanced negotiations with a foreign company for the joint venture. Bank officials have said that the bank has seen a growth of 20 per cent in its advances during 2004-05 and is expecting a growth of around 25 per cent in the current fiscal. While deposits and advances grew by 16 per cent last year, the bank says that it intends to grow deposits by 25 per cent and advances by 20 per cent in this fiscal.

BOB also plans to tap the domestic equity markets with a public issue of 7.1 crore shares by July this year. The bank expects to raise around Rs1,500 crore with this offer. Post-issue, the Government holding in the bank will come down to 53.7 per cent from 66.8 per cent currently.
Bank of Baroda has tied up with HP as its strategic partner for its technology-enabled Business Transformation Project'. With the tie-up, the bank proposes to deploy a single solution across the globe.

This will be done in two phases. In the first, 664 branches of the bank covering 80 per cent of the bank's business will be brought under core banking solutions by March 2007. By March 2010, 1,315 branches will be added.

HP will implement and manage for the bank an enterprise-wide service-oriented architecture including core banking, phone banking, Internet banking, delivery channel integration, risk and performance management, customer relationship management, data warehousing, global treasury, human resources management system (HRMS), cheque truncation system and more.
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IDBI to raise Rs.10,000 crore via bonds
Mumbai: The Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) proposes to raise Rs10,000 crore by way of bond issuances during the current financial year, according to the Chairman, V.P. Shetty.

He said IDBI has an adequate equity base with a healthy capital ratio of 15-16 per cent. The bank has the option of issuing tier-II bonds to meet any additional capital requirements in the future.

The bank expects its business - deposits, advances and borrowings - to touch Rs1,50,000 crore by the end of the current fiscal as against Rs1,30,000 crore in the previous fiscal. The bank also plans to grow its retail portfolio by Rs 10,000 crore and is targeting Rs16,000 crore for project finance, he added.
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RBI auctions to raise Rs7,000 crore
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India proposes to raise Rs7,000 crore through the auction of two government securities on April 19, 2005. Of this Rs5,000 crore will be raised through the auction of the 8.07 per cent 2017, 12-year paper, through uniform price method. The auction of the 7.5 per cent, 2034, 29-year paper to raise Rs2,000 crore will be through the multiple price method.

The Kerala Government has also announced the sale of a 10-year Kerala State Development Loan for an amount of Rs300 crore, through a multiple price auction method, on April 20.
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RBI's vision document: Maharashtra UCBs plan one-day strike
Mumbai: The Urban co-operative banks (UCBs) in Maharashtra are planning a one day token strike on April 25 to protest against the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) proposals on streamlining the working of UCBs. The RBI had issued a draft vision document on UCBs recently.

Maharashtra Urban Co-operative Banks' Federation Ltd, which called for the strike, said that around 3,300 employees working in UCBs from Maharashtra will participate in the token strike.
Out of 656 UCBs in Maharashtra, 544 are members of the Federation. The average daily turnover of UCBs in the State is around Rs6,600 crore.

The Vision Document proposes that banks with deposit of less than Rs 50 crore be classified as Tier-I banks and those with deposit of more than Rs50 crore as Tier-II banks. All regulations of commercial banks will be applicable to Tier-II banks.

The Vision Document also prescribes grading UCBs depending on their performance.
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