Rupee declines marginally
Mumbai: The rupee declined by around three to four paise as RBI bought dollars in the forex market on Thursday. The home currency opened at 40.53/55, traded in a range of 40.53-40.61 and finally closed at 40.60/61 against the previous close of 40.57/58 on Wednesday.

Dealers said the rupee is likely to trade in the 40.55-40.75 range in the next 10 days.

Forwards: In forwards, the six-month premia closed at 4.28 per cent (4.41 per cent) and the 12-month ended at 3.7 per cent (3.8 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices slipped by around 10 paise in anticipation of the Rs8,000-crore government securities auction on Friday. Total traded volumes on the order-matching system were at Rs1,150 crore (Rs2,090 crore).

Traders said the RBI was rumoured to be planning a hike in cash reserve ratio.

G-secs: The 8.07 per cent-10 year-2017 paper opened at Rs99.43 (8.15 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs99.45 (8.15 per cent YTM), against Wednesday's close of Rs99.54 (8.14 per cent YTM).

The 7.49 per cent-10 year-2017 paper, which is currently most active, opened at Rs95.40 (8.17 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs95.35 (8.18 per cent YTM), against the previous close of Rs95.40 (8.17 per cent YTM).

Call rates: The inter-bank call rate closed at 7.60-7.80 per cent (7.7-7.8 per cent).

Reverse repo: In the first one-day repo auction, there were two bids for Rs300 crore and there were no bids in the reverse repo auction. In the second one-day repo auction, the RBI received and accepted eight bids for Rs6,455 crore and in the reverse repo auction, the central bank accepted and received one bid for Rs25 crore.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 460 trades aggregating Rs29,925.05 crore in the 7.46-7.8 per cent range.
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Banks can foray into pension fund management
Mumbai: The government has allowed banks to foray into pension fund management with changes being made under Section 6(o) of the Banking Regulations Act.

This comes after the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) fixed a deadline (Friday, May 25) for filing an expression of interest for undertaking fund management activity.

Earlier, State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank had shown interest in acting as pension fund managers.

The selection of the fund managers is likely to be completed by June and the funds are likely to be invested as per the interim investment guidelines, which may allow investment of 5 per cent in equity and 10 per cent in equity-linked mutual funds. The remaining part would be invested in government securities, corporate bonds and other money market instruments.

Reportedly, there will be 2-3 fund managers from the public sector as the scheme at the moment is for central and state government employees. Private fund managers are likely to be allowed later.
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Catholic Syrian Bank net up 210 pc
Kochi: Catholic Syrian Bank has registered a 210-per cent increase in net profit to Rs19.07 crore for 2006-07, compared with Rs6.14 crore the previous year.

Operating profit of the bank grew to Rs62.64 crore (Rs36.99 crore). Net interest income grew to Rs164 crore (Rs147 crore). Net NPAs were reduced to 1.98 per cent (2.78 per cent). The bank also recorded a capital adequacy ratio of 9.58 per cent against the RBI-stipulated norm of nine per cent.

Total deposits grew to Rs4,748.60 crore (Rs4,288.85 crore), while advances rose to Rs3,012.64 crore (Rs2,694.87 crore).

The return on assets grew to 0.37 per cent, up from 0.13 per cent earlier, a bank release said.

Business per employee grew to Rs2.78 crore (Rs2.47 crore), while profit per employee recorded sharper growth to Rs68,000 from Rs22,000.

The bank has received approval from the RBI to open 19 more branches and 25 offsite ATMs at various locations.
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Centurion Bank of Punjab Q4 net rises 7.6 pc
Mumbai: Centurion Bank of Punjab has shown a 7.6 per cent rise in net profit to Rs28.01 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2007 against Rs26.04 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year due to a strong growth in advances.

The bank achieved this increase after a one-time reduction of Rs13.2 crore due to the revised standard asset provisioning norms as prescribed by the RBI, said a press release by the bank. Capital adequacy ratio stood at 11.05 per cent (12.5 per cent). The bank experienced a 72-per cent growth in advances to Rs11,221 crore, and 58 per cent rise in deposits to Rs14,863 crore during the quarter. The retail, corporate and SME advances increased by 65 per cent and 89 per cent, respectively.
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Doorstep banking is here
Mumbai: Banks have received the go-ahead to offer doorstep services to customers and can now deliver cash and drafts to customers' homes and offices as well as collect cash, cheques and other instruments. Banks can now offer doorstep banking not only to individuals and corporates, but also government departments, public sector units and others. Some of the banks were earlier offering these services. However, they stopped after the central bank began reviewing the services.

RBI, in February, had allowed banks to pick up cash, instruments and deliver demand drafts to individual customers. At that point it had not allowed cash delivery to individuals. For corporates and other customers, RBI had then allowed pick up of cash and instruments, delivery of cash against cheques received at the counter and also delivery of demand drafts.
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