Rupee tad higher; bond lacklustre
Mumbai: The rupee closed at 43.67/6725 against the US dollar on Wednesday, slightly higher than Tuesday's close of 43.7050.

Forwards market: The 12-month premium traded at levels of 1.45 per cent (1.47 per cent), while the six-month premium traded between 1.69 per cent and 1.70 per cent (1.65 per cent).

G-Secs: The bond market was range-bound with the 7.38 per cent 10-year-2015-benchmark paper almost inactive. On Wednesday, it closed at Rs101.90 (7.11 per cent yield to maturity/YTM), higher than Tuesday's close of Rs101.86 (7.12 per cent YTM). The 8.07 per cent 12-year-2017 paper, which is currently the most actively traded paper, closed a tad higher at Rs104.97 (7.43 per cent YTM) against Tuesday's close of Rs104.65/70 (7.47 per cent YTM).

Call rates: The inter bank rates were between 4.78 and 4.80 per cent.

CBLO market: 161 trades aggregating Rs6,525.45 crore in the rate range of 4.56 to 4.70 per cent were realised.
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Magma Leasing Q4 disbursals up by 81 per cent
Kolkata: Magma Leasing Ltd (MLL), has achieved an 81 per cent growth in disbursal levels during the fourth quarter of 2004-05 at Rs516 crore, and has fixed a business target (new loans) of Rs2,100 crore for 2005-06.

The company expects to finance commercial vehicles (CV) to the tune of Rs1,200 crore, with both cars and construction equipment accounting for Rs450 crore each.

The company has ended 2004-05 at an all-time high of disbursals. Financing of assets worth Rs 1,759.25 crore, is up 58 per cent from the Rs1,112.89 crore in 2003-04. The targeted figure was Rs1,371 crore. Magma's total assets under management as on March 31, 2005 has touched the Rs2,000-crore mark, with NPAs at zero level.

The profit before tax for 2004-05 stood at Rs23.21 crore (Rs20.03 crore), showing an increase of nearly 16 per cent. The company's board, which met to take on record the audited financial results for the year ended March 31, 2005, has recommended a dividend of Rs1.50 per share (15 per cent).

The profit after tax as on March 31, 2005 has increased to Rs20.35 crore (Rs16.32 crore). Magma has recorded a total income from operations during 2004-05 of Rs98.02 crore (Rs 80.60 crore), notching up a year-on-year growth of over 19 per cent.
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Birla Sun Life premium income up 70 per cent
Mumbai: Birla Sun Life Insurance has ended fiscal 2004-05 with a 70 per cent increase in premium income at Rs915.5 crore. It plans to increase it to Rs1,500 crore by the end of the current fiscal.

Annualised premium has grown by 32 per cent to Rs627.4 crore as compared to Rs461.3 crore last year. The company has issued close to 2,00,000 lakh policies this year, taking the total number of policies to 3,77,240 and the total sum assured to Rs22,715 crore.

The company said it has acquired a market share of 3.3 per cent and has thereby retained the number two position among private life insurers. The average premium per policy has grown to Rs34,550 as compared to Rs23,120 last year. The operating expenses, as a percentage of premium, declined to 19.4 per cent from last year's 26.9 per cent.

Premium income from the group's business has dropped from Rs167 crore in 2003-04 to Rs89 crore in 2004-2005. 43 per cent of sales during 2004-05 came from bancassurance as against revenues from the direct sales force.
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Allahabad Bank business up 31 per cent at Rs63,000 crore
Hyderabad: The Allahabad Bank has crossed the Rs63,000-crore-mark in business for the fiscal ended March 2005, recording a year-on-year growth of 31.6 per cent compared with a growth of 22.9 per cent recorded in the previous fiscal.

The bank has said that the total deposits have grown by 29.5 per cent to Rs40,767 crore, while gross advances have improved by 35.7 per cent at Rs22,236 crore.

According to bank officials, the bank expects an increase of 20 per cent in operating profit at around Rs1,100 crore compared with Rs876 crore in the previous fiscal. It expects a net profit of around Rs550 crore (Rs463 crore).

The bank says that it plans to achieve Rs80,000-crore business for the current fiscal, a growth of 27 per cent over the previous, Rs51,000 crore of deposits, an increase of 25.1 per cent, and Rs29,000 crore of gross credit, recording a growth of 30.4 per cent over the figure of 2004-05.

The bank expects to post an operating profit of around Rs1,200 crore and a net profit of over Rs800 crore for the current fiscal, officials said. Having reduced its gross and net NPAs to 6 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively with the help of aggressive recoveries of over Rs408 crore during last fiscal, the bank now aims at further reducing the gross NPAs to below 5 per cent and net NPAs to below 1 per cent.

The bank has drawn up a major revamping and business process-reengineering (BPR) programme for which it has engaged the services of Ernst & Young. E&Y would extend its expert guidance and counsel for formulating IT strategy and BPR needs and suggesting training needs and implementation of centralised banking solution.
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Andhra Bank gets CGR2 rating from ICRA
Hyderabad: The Andhra Bank has informed the stock exchanges that ICRA has assigned a `CGR2' rating to the corporate governance practices of the bank.

This rating implies that in ICRA's current opinion, the rated company has adopted and follows such practices, conventions and codes as would provide its financial stakeholders a high level of assurance on the quality of corporate governance, the bank said.
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