Rupee gains marginally
Mumbai: The rupee appreciated marginally on Monday against the dollar on the back of dollar inflows. The rupee opened at 40.50/52, touched an intra day high of 40.45/46 but fell to end the day at 40.53/54, against Friday's close of 40.55/56.

Market participants said that with IPO related inflows expected in the forex market, the rupee is likely to appreciate further.

In forwards, the six-month premium closed at 2.33 per cent (2.58 per cent) and the 12-month ended at 2.51 per cent (2.73 per cent).
Bonds: Bond prices fell on Monday by around 10 paise and yields rose by two basis points on concerns over liquidity.

Dealers said about Rs20,000 crore will be sucked out of the banking system due to MSS, G-sec and T-bill auctions this week. This will drain out the excess liquidity in the system. Total traded volumes on the order matching system were Rs3,220 crore (Rs3,630 crore).

G-secs: The 8.07 per cent-10 year-2017 paper opened at Rs99.72 (8.11 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs99.89 (8.09 per cent YTM) against Friday's Rs99.98 (8.07 per cent YTM).

The 7.38 per cent-8 year-2015 paper opened at Rs95.66 (8.11 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs95.77 (8.09 per cent YTM) against Rs95.78 (8.08 per cent YTM) on Friday.

Call rates: Call rates dropped to close at a 10-year low of 0.4-0.6 per cent on Monday and touched an intra-day low of 0.25 per cent due to excess cash in the system. On Friday, call rates closed at 0.5-0.7 per cent.

Reverse repo: In the first one-day reverse repo auction, RBI received 39 bids for Rs48,810 crore while it accepted Rs1,997 crore. In the second one-day reverse repo auction, the RBI received 33 bids for Rs38,605 crore while it accepted Rs1,001 crore.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 196 trades aggregating Rs12,690 crore in the 0.01-8 per cent range.
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Exemption limit raised on TDS for senior citizens
New Delhi: Senior citizens having deposits under the Senior Citizens Savings Scheme will not have to pay tax deduction at source (TDS) on interest earnings up to Rs10,000 in a financial year as the Government has raised the limit for exemption on TDS on the interest paid under this scheme to Rs10,000, from the current level of Rs5,000 in a financial year.

The Senior Citizens Savings scheme was launched in 2004 and offered 9 per cent interest to depositors aged 60 years and above.

A depositor can invest a maximum of Rs15 lakh in the scheme, which has a lock-in period of five years.

Apart from the Senior Citizen Scheme, the Finance Ministry has also now hiked the threshold limit for TDS exemption for interest (other than interest on securities) paid by banking companies and cooperative societies engaged in the banking business.

The threshold limit has been pegged at Rs10,000 as against the earlier specified amount of Rs 5,000 in a financial year.

The enhanced limit of Rs10,000 would be effective from June 1, an official release said here on Monday. The move to raise the threshold limit, which was announced in Budget 2007-08, is expected to benefit a large number of fixed deposit holders and senior citizens.
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Bank of Baroda to offer reverse mortgage
Mumbai: Bank of Baroda plans to launch the `reverse mortgage' facility for home owners in the next three months. Reverse mortgage comprises a stream of loan payments against the homeowner's net equity stake in the property- product for customers based on the recent guidelines issued by the National Housing Bank (NHB). NHB has recently revised the guidelines on `reverse mortgage'. The revised norms allow married couples where one of the partners is below 60 years to avail themselves of such a loan. Earlier, NHB norms required both the partners to be above 60 for availing themselves of the scheme.

Punjab National Bank is the only bank currently providing the scheme. Dewan Housing Finance Corporation has introduced reverse mortgage scheme called Saksham for the senior citizens of the country.
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