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Govt. to introduce bill on commodity futures
New Delhi: The government intends to introduce the Warehousing Development and Regulation Bill and make suitable amendments to the Forward Contracts (Regulation) Act in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament, according to Union agriculture, consumer affairs and food minister Sharad Pawar who spoke on the sidelines of a seminar on commodity futures organised by Assocham on Thursday.

"We need to work towards promoting futures trading to newer heights in the immediate future. The government proposes to introduce a Bill in Parliament on warehousing development and regulation in the monsoon session," Pawar said.

The monsoon session is scheduled to start on July 25.

"We are looking into various enabling issues pertaining to the standardisation and gradation, negotiability of warehouse receipts and development of modern warehousing infrastructure across the country," he added.

The minister also said that along with liberalisation and adoption of modern practices, the government proposes to amend the Forward Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1952 as well.

The amendments will update the statutory provisions and also restructure and strengthen the commodities market regulator, the Forward Markets Commission (FMC).

Pawar also said that the proposed amendments would enable the setting up of a Forward Markets Appellate Tribunal along the lines of the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT).

Consumer affairs secretary, L Mansingh, speaking at the seminar said that the amendments will enable the FMC to become an independent and autonomous body like the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Currently, the regulator is an arm of the agriculture ministry.
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Allbank Finance gets SEBI clearance for merchant banking activities
Kolkata: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has granted a merchant banking licence to Allbank Finance, a subsidiary of the Allahabad Bank.

The company hopes to begin merchant-banking activities shortly. The subsidiary, which has been inactive for a considerable period of time now, will take up merchant banking as the first of the several activities that it plans to take up in due course.

Allbank Finance, which has weighed the possibility of entering debt advisory and stock broking activities, has also identified insurance as a potential business.

According to O.N. Singh, CMD of Allahabad Bank the board of directors of the Allbank Finance would also be recast soon. He also said that that the company recorded a nominal profit in the last fiscal, chiefly from the sale of securities.

The company's capital base stands at Rs60 crore.
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IDFC public offer subscribed 14 times
Mumbai: The initial public offering of Infrastructure Development Finance Co. Ltd has been fully subscribed 14 times. The issue was subscribed within a few minutes after it opened for bidding.

IDFC is raising around Rs1,300 crore through an issue of 40.3 crore shares. The price band for the issue is between Rs29 and Rs34.

The issue closes on July 22.

The book running lead managers to the issue is Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. Ltd, along with SBI Capital Markets Ltd and DSP Merrill Lynch Ltd.
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Karnataka Bank denies takeover bid
Mangalore: The Chairman and CEO of Karnataka Bank, Anantakrishna, has categorically refuted any corporate house accumulating the shares of the bank.

Replying to queries of the shareholders at the bank's 81st AGM, held in Mangalore on Friday, he said: "We have come to know about such rumours. But we deny them."

Shareholders were asking questions based on some of the media reports that Anil Ambani was accumulating shares of the bank. Anantakrishna said that in the past 10 days - from July 4 to July 14 - a considerable amount of shares had been sold and purchased in the market.

On a particular day, 2.81 crore shares were traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange. But only 41 lakh shares were delivered. "In the last 10 days, 10 crore shares were traded. Of the 12.1 crore shares of the bank, only nine crore are in demat format. That means some of the shares were traded again. Only 1.48 crore shares were delivered during the 10-day period," he said.

"However, we can't keep our eyes closed. The bank and its governing body are conscious of the developments. We will make all efforts to retain the bank as it is."

Individual shareholders hold 84 per cent of shares of the bank. Mutual funds hold 5.33 per cent; insurance companies and banks 1.7 per cent, and FIIs 9.56 per cent.

Earlier, addressing the AGM, Anantakrishna said that the market capital of the bank at on March 31, 2005 stood at Rs858 core. Currently, the market capital is around Rs1,400 crore, he added.
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