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Rupee, bonds decline
Mumbai: The rupee declined against the US dollar on Friday, as the greenback rallied globally. The rupee closed at 45.80/81; about 10 paise lower than Thursday's close of 45.71.

Forwards: In the forward premia market the six-month premium closed at 0.65 per cent (0.7 per cent) and the one-year at 0.5 per cent (0.5-0.52 per cent).

G-Secs: The 7.49 per cent -12 year-2017 paper closed at Rs101.94 (7.23 per cent), down from the earlier level of Rs102.41 (7.175 per cent YTM). The 10.25 per cent - 6 year-2021 ended trade at Rs125.8 (7.42 per cent YTM), lower than Thursday's close of Rs126.13 (7.39 per cent YTM). The 7.37 per cent - 9 year-2014 paper closed at Rs102.47 (6.97 per cent YTM).

Reverse Repo: In the three-day reverse repo auction, under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility, the RBI received and accepted 21 bids for Rs3,685 crore.

CBLO: There were 287 trades for Rs11,785.75 crore in the range of 1-5.3 per cent. Call rates were between 5-5.30 per cent and closed below 4 per cent (5.25-5.30 per cent).
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HDFC sells 2.2 per cent stake in Canfin Homes
Bangalore: The Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) has been gradually selling its stake in the Canara Bank-promoted Canfin Homes. Till now it has sold 2.2 per cent of its stake. HDFC sold about 4.51 lakh shares between September 2 and November 18 this year. Canara Bank currently holds 29.32 per cent stake in the company.

HDFC till the end of the second quarter of this year held a 5.14-per cent stake in Canfin Homes comprising about 10.54 lakh shares. After the sale, HDFC's stake in CFHL dropped to 4.77 per cent of the paid-up equity.

Besides HDFC, other financial institutions holding stake in CFHL are National Housing Bank, Oriental Insurance Company Ltd and New India Assurance Company Ltd. FII Mirae Asset Management Company holds a stake 2.8 per cent in CFHL.
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Deutsche Bank to issue credit cards
Chennai: In keeping with its retail banking focus in India Deutsche Bank is planning to launch a credit card of its own. The card would be on offer by June 2006.

India is Deutsche Bank's first foray outside Europe into retail banking and the bank's prime focus is customer acquisition.

The German bank has joined Cashnet, a shared ATM network that would give the bank's customers access to over 5,000 ATMs across the country. Besides this, the bank has introduced deposit products with some unique features such as one minimum balance for all the accounts of the same family and current accounts with more freebies.

Deutsche bank will open eight branches in seven cities shortly and all branches would be open between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m.
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HSBC looks at diluting stake in UTI Bank
New Delhi: HSBC India is looking at diluting its stake in UTI Bank as and when the the latter bank looks to raise more capital.
Currently, HSBC has a 12.6 per cent stake in UTI Bank. This is the holding of HSBC Group after UTI Bank went in for a global depository receipts (GDR) issue.

Niall Booker chief executive officer HSBC said the bank would abide by the decisions of the regulator. "If the regulation does not permit us to increase the stake in line with the capital raised, we will be of course diluting it," he said.

Booker said that HSBC's investment in UTI Bank was a financial investment. He also said that HSBC would be investing in growing its own businesses in India. "We still have a huge faith in the overall Indian story. We will be investing in growing our own businesses. We will look at other businesses. I will have to stress that it will have to be within regulatory framework," he said.

Booker said he was keen to position personal financial services of the HSBC Bank in India as a big beneficiary of the growth in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) that is expected to be seen in the coming years.
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Calyon to invest US$100mn in Indian operations
New Delhi: Calyon, the investment banking arm of the Credit Agricole Group of France, has announced an investment of US$100mn to double the capital base of its Indian arm. The group also plans to open branches in Bangalore and Pune by the year-end.

Calyon has identified India as a "key focus growth market" and aims to size the opportunities in fast growing countries in its three-year development plan. After the infusion of US$100mn, the bank's capital has increased to US$200mn.

In recognition of India's growing importance, Calyon had organised an "Indian Day" in Paris on November 18.
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ICICI launches Rs.7,000 crore public issue
Mumbai: ICICI Bank, the biggest private sector bank of India, has officially announced the launch of its public issue (follow-on public offer) targeting to raise about Rs7,000 crores, both from the domestic and overseas markets.

Announcing the launch of the issue, the biggest till date by any private company in India, ICICI bank's managing director and CEO K. Vaman Kamath said, "We are part of the extremely positive India story which is going strong on the expanding services sector, a resurgent industrial sector, about 8 per cent GDP and the still to be tapped vast rural market."

The proceeds from the issue will be utilised for existing corporate requirements of the bank, which will continue to focus on its current core business of corporate banking. He said apart from retail credit and expanding international operations, ICICI is gearing itself to exploit and leverage the vast rural market in India.

The bank has opened a number of rural branches in Tamil Nadu and plans to open more rural branches in other States. The rural branches would be targeting farm credit and evolve products to encourage savings and investment among the farmers besides selling the bank's insurance products.
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HSBC awaits RBI approval for NBFC
New Delhi: After investing US$150mn this year, global banking major HSBC is willing to step up investments in India as it expects the economy to sustain over seven per cent growth in coming years.

HSBC Plc, which has assets over US$1,467bn and a presence in 77 countries, is also awaiting RBI's nod for starting a non-banking finance company and plans a foray into the pension sector after government puts in place a legislation.

Impressed by the pace of reforms in the last 15 years, HSBC Holdings Plc group chairman Sir John Bond said "the Indian economy is growing by 7 per cent. Our judgment is that any change in growth will be on the upside."

India, which contributes about one per cent of HSBC's global profits, is slightly behind China that adds up to two per cent of its profits. HSBC group's pre-tax profits were at US$10.64bn for the first six months of 2005.
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Union Bank launches on-line trading services
Mumbai: The Union Bank of India has launched its 'Union On-line Trading Services' along with the leading broker, Sharekhan.

The on-line trading would cater to customers of the bank who want to invest as well as trade in shares and prospective customers engaged in these activities, the bank informed the BSE.

The fund settlement would be done through the customers' savings account or credit account. The customer is required to have his demat account with the bank apart from savings account and credit account to avail the facility.
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Rabobank gets FIPB nod to hike stake in Yes Bank
New Delhi: The finance ministry has given its nod to Dutch banking major Rabobank International Holding BV to increase its stake in Yes Bank from 16.90 per cent to 20 per cent, but said there was no proposal pending on granting it a banking licence.

Rabobank, which is one of the promoters of Yes Bank, initially held 20 per cent equity. But it came down to 16.9 per cent after the initial public offer of the private bank this year.

In May 2005, RBI permitted the co-promoter to increase its holding to 20 per cent by acquisition of shares in the open market.

Banking licenses are granted by the RBI and not by the Ministry of Finance, it said.
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Yes Bank to offer retail banking from next quarter
Mumbai: Yes Bank is foraying into retail banking during the fourth quarter of this fiscal by offering personal loans and advances against existing real estate.

The bank will further expand its retail loan portfolio by offering housing loans during 2006-07, said Yes Bank MD and CEO Rana Kapoor.

The bank is planning to open 23 more branches across the country to take the total number to 30 by March 30, 2006. Majority of the branches would be in northern States, while 12 will be located in west, including seven in Maharashtra.

Three branches would be in south Indian States and one in east.

The bank would raise Rs100 crore tier II capital each from ADB and domestic sources within 60 days to set up infrastructure, he said.
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