Rupee gains
Mumbai: The rupee strengthened by about 9 paise against the dollar on Friday due to strong FII inflows into the market according to a dealer with a private bank. The domestic currency opened the day at 40.54/56 to close at 40.52/53 up from the previous close of 40.61.

Market participants feel that the central bank will allow the gradual appreciation of rupee. In forwards, the six-month premia closed at 2.58 per cent (2.62 per cent) while the 12-month ended at 2.73 per cent (2.74 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices rose by around 5 paise on value buying. Total traded volumes on the order matching system were at Rs3,630 crore (Rs4,685 crore).

With surplus cash of around Rs45,000 - 50,000 crore in the system, dealers have been cautious about RBI action in the form of a rate hike or a Market Stabilisation Auction.

G-secs: The 8.07 per cent-10 year-2017 paper opened at Rs99.90 (8.08 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs99.98 (8.07 per cent YTM), against Thursday's close of Rs99.93 (8.08 per cent YTM).

The 7.38 per cent-8 year-2015 paper opened at Rs95.80 (8.08 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs95.78 (8.08 per cent YTM), against the previous close of Rs95.79 (8.09 per cent YTM).

Call rates: The inter-bank call rates remained range bound to close at 0.50 - 0.70 per cent on Friday.

The central bank has announced an auction worth Rs9,000 crore, the outflow of which will take place on Wednesday.

The amount is too small to drain out the excess liquidity from the system a dealer said. The Reserve Bank of India did not receive any bids through the repo window the whole of this week.

Reverse repo: In the first three - day reverse repo auction, the RBI received 35 bids for Rs44,550 crore while it accepted Rs1,996 crore. In the second three - day reverse repo auction, it received 32 bids for Rs37,075 crore while it accepted Rs1,000 crore.

There were no repo bids in the first and second three - day auctions.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 272 trades aggregating Rs23,960.55 crore in the 0.01 - 0.13 per cent range.
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RBI makes changes in reporting system for overseas direct investment
Mumbai: To improve the coverage and ensure proper monitoring of foreign investment by Indian residents, the Reserve Bank of India on Friday has prescribed a single form against the six different forms currently required for details of overseas investments.

As per the new reporting package, all the forms have been subsumed into one form viz. ODI (Overseas Direct Investment form), comprising of four parts RBI said in a circular issued here on Friday.

The new form includes reporting of remittances, annual performance report and report on the closure/disinvestment/voluntary liquidation/winding up of joint venture. The circular added that the revised form is only a rationalisation of the reporting procedure and there is no change or dilution in the existing eligibility criteria.

The new reporting format, which has been revised pursuant to the proposal in the annual credit policy, would ensure a comprehensive coverage on the cost of acquisition overseas and the methods of financing and simplified annual performance report, it said.
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Forex reserves up $952 mn
Mumbai: According to the RBI's Weekly Statistical Supplement, foreign currency assets increased by $953 million to $197.438 billion. Foreign currency assets, as expressed in dollars, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation in non-US currencies (euro, sterling and yen) held in reserves. Dealers said the RBI bought dollars in the forex market during the week under consideration to rein in the appreciating rupee.

Dealers also said there could have been a partial revaluation effect. The sterling had strengthened against the dollar during the week in question from $1.9697 to $1.9845.

Gold reserves and SDRs remained unchanged at $7.036 billion and $1 million, respectively. The country's reserve position in the IMF dropped $1 million to $459 million.
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UTI Bank to raise capital
Mumbai: UTI Bank will raise fresh capital through an overseas issue and a preferential allotment to promoters.

The bank told the BSE that it would raise its Tier-I capital (core capital) by issuing up to 4.23 crore equity shares. The overseas issue would be equity linked securities or depository receipts.

As per Friday's share price of Rs576.15 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, the bank would be raising around Rs2,442 crore through the fresh issue.

The bank will also offer 3.19 crore shares to the promoters on a preferential allotment basis. This is to help maintain the promoters' stake after the overseas issue.

The board has also decided to increase the authorised share capital of the bank to Rs500 crore from the current Rs300 crore. An extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders of the bank will be convened on June 25 for hiking the authorised capital.

Meanwhile, necessary documentary changes will be made to rechristen the bank as "Axis Bank Ltd", said the BSE notice.
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Punjab & Sind net profit more than doubles
New Delhi: Punjab & Sind Bank has registered a 102 pc increase in profits and a steep decline in its non-performing assets (NPAs) for 2006-07. The bank's net profit more than doubled in 2006-07 to Rs218.53 crore from Rs108.32 crore (102 per cent) in the previous year. Its gross profit went up by 76.55 per cent to Rs472.44 crore (Rs267.60 crore). The return on assets stood at 1.01 per cent, a statement issued by the bank said. The unprecedented cash recovery has enabled the bank to bring down its gross NPAs for 2006-07 to 2.43 per cent from 9.61 per cent and net NPAs to 0.66 per cent from 2.43 per cent, it added.
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