Rupee gains
Mumbai: The rupee gained by 7 paise against the greenback to close at 40.51/52 on Monday down from the previous close of 40.5850/5950. The domestic currency opened at 40.53/55 and saw a high of 40.28 but quickly slipped from the position due to suspected RBI buying in the market.
In forwards, the six-month premia closed at 3.18 per cent (4.23 per cent) while the 12-month closed at 3.09 per cent (3.7 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices surged by around 40 paise as contrary to expectations, the RBI did not take any action to mop up excess liquidity.

Total traded volumes on the order-matching system were around Rs 5,875 crore.

Bond prices had been falling last week as market participants were expecting the RBI to hike the Cash Reserve Ratio or announce a Market Stabilisation Scheme auction (MSS), to absorb surplus liquidity. This is the second consecutive week that the RBI has not scheduled an MSS auction said dealers.

G-secs: The 8.07 per cent-10 year-2017 paper opened at Rs100.05 (8.06 per cent YTM), touched an intra day high of Rs100.25 (8.02 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs100.03 (8.06 per cent YTM). The 7.38 per cent-8 year-2015 paper opened at Rs95.85 (8.07 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs95.75 (8.09 per cent YTM), against the previous close at Rs95.40 (8.15 per cent YTM

Call rates: The inter bank call rates closed lower at 5.75-6 per cent on Monday against the previous close of 7-7.1 per cent.
Reverse repo: In the first one-day reverse repo auction, the RBI received eight bids for Rs9,995 crore while it accepted Rs2,000 crore. In the second one-day reverse repo auction, the central bank received 12 bids for Rs7,535 crore while it accepted Rs999 crore. There were no repo bids in the first and second one-day auctions.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 528 trades aggregating Rs28,210.75 crore in the 3-7.5 per cent range.
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ICICI Holdings to raise $500mn from stake sale
Mumbai: ICICI Bank's subsidiary ICICI Holdings, which owns its insurance and asset management businesses, is selling 5 per cent stake to private equity investors and foreign reinsurers for $500 million.

The private equity investors likely to buy the stakes are General Atlantic, Government of Singapore Investment Corporation Private and Temasek.

Sources indicated that all investors would be allotted equal stakes in ICICI Holdings.

The company has sought regulatory clearance and appointed JP Morgan as the financial advisor for selling the stake. The two Singapore-based private equity players, GIC and Temasek, have stakes in ICICI Bank.

ICICI Bank is looking at valuing ICICI Holdings at $10 billion sources said.

ICICI Holdings' 74 per cent stake in ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company is valued at $6 billion and in ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company at $3 billion. The bank's 51 per cent stake in ICICI Prudential Asset Management is valued at $1 billion.

ICICI Holdings is also planning to list its equity shares at an appropriate time to meet a part of its further capital requirements for ICICI Life and ICICI General.

However, ICICI Bank intends to retain the majority ownership in ICICI Holdings. ICICI Prudential Life has registered a growth rate of 103 per cent in new business premium at Rs4,381 crore, and has a 10 per cent market share.

However, its loss increased to Rs649 crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2007 from Rs187 crore a year earlier. ICICI Lombard registered a profit of Rs68.36 crore in 2007 against Rs50.31 crore a year earlier.
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StanChart may acquire 49 pc stake in UTI Securities
Mumbai: Standard Chartered Bank is in talks with Securities Trading Corporation of India (STCI) to buy an initial 49 per cent stake in the investment and broking firm UTI Securities for an undisclosed amount. STCI is the holding company of UTI Securities. Standard Chartered will enter the retail stock broking in Asia for the first time in more than a decade through UTI Sec which offers institutional broking, retail broking and online broking. Officials said the valuation of the deal was still undecided. There is no merchant banker involved in the deal. However, STCI has appointed a consultant for the deal, while Ernst and Young will carry out the due diligence. The deal is likely to help Standard Chartered to expand services to its wealthy customers and increase its number of clients. UTI Securities, in turn, will get a strategic partner with strong capabilities.
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ING Vysya launches ULIP
Bangalore: The ING Vysya Life Insurance Company (IVLICL) has launched a new Unit Linked Insurance Plan (ULIP).
Officials said the plan provided for an enhanced life insurance cover. The cover would increase 5 per cent per annum, if regular premiums are paid.

The product is available for 10 to 20 year terms, with annual premiums ranging from Rs10,000 to Rs50,000. The policy also has convenient premium payment options of just Rs833 per month. In addition, the product had all the investment features of conventional ULIPs allowing policyholders the investment options between fixed income, equity or a combination of both. Apart from this two migrations per year will be free.
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