Rupee weakens marginally
Mumbai: The rupee declined by about 5 paise against the dollar due to sustained buying of the dollar. The dollar opened at 40.66/67 and saw an intra-day low of 40.76/77 before closing the day at 40.71 down from the previous close of 40.66/67. Market participants expect rupee to trade in the 40.50-40.70 range.

In forwards, the six-month premia closed at 2.48 per cent (2.68 per cent) while the 12-month closed at 2.64 per cent (2.76 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices rose around 20 paise and yields went down by about three basis points due to excess liquidity in the system. Total traded volumes on the order matching system were at Rs4,190 crore (Rs2,760 crore).

G-secs: The 8.07 per cent-10 year-2017 paper opened at Rs99.60 (8.13 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs99.75 (8.11 per cent YTM) against Wednesday's close of Rs99.55 (8.14 per cent YTM).

The 7.49 per cent-10 year-2017 paper opened at Rs95.30 (8.20 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs95.50 (8.16 per cent YTM) against the previous close of Rs95.32 (8.19 per cent YTM) on Wednesday.

Call rates: The inter-bank call rates closed at 0.3-0.4 per cent on Thursday against the previous close of 0.2-0.3 per cent as excess cash flooded the system. A dealer said there was surplus cash of about Rs25,000-30,000 crore in the system. There was an outflow of Rs14,000 crore from government securities auction but that has not fully sucked out the surplus liquidity from the system.

Reverse repo: In the second one-day reverse repo auction, it received 37 bids for Rs45,010 crore while it accepted Rs1,001 crore. There were no repo bids in the first and second one-day auctions. The CBLO market saw 170 trades aggregating Rs14,749.80 crore in the 0.01-0.15 per cent range.
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SBI to raises Rs 2,500 funds through tier-II bonds
Mumbai: The country's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), has raised about Rs2,500 crore capital through upper tier- II bonds to support the business growth and meet the Basel II capital adequacy norms.

This is the largest capital raising ever though upper tier II bonds in domestic market. SBI's initial plan was to float bonds for Rs2,000 crore. Looking at the response to the issue, the bank has decided to retain entire amount pledged, senior SBI official said.

The 15-year bonds carry a coupon rate of 10.20 per cent payable annually. The interest rate for the long term paper is expected to hover in 9.75 per cent to 10.25 per cent range.
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Foreign investors buy 16.47 per cent stake in TMB
Chennai: Foreign investors have acquired a 46,862 shares of Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Ltd (TMB), that works out to 16.47 per cent of the paid-up equity of the bank.

Members of the Nadar community have also purchased another 48,556 shares of the bank, or 17.06 per cent.

With this, all the 95,418 shares (33.58 per cent) of the bank that were with Mr C. Sivasankaran, Chairman of the Sterling group of companies, have been bought out. This effectively brings the curtain down on the controversial stake-sale that has been raging for 14 years now.
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Reliance Mutual launches natural resources fund
Kolkata: Reliance Mutual Fund has launched the Reliance Natural Resources Fund, which will chiefly invest in companies engaged in the discovery, production or distribution of natural resources. The fund will be benchmarked against the Standard & Poor's Goldman Sachs Spot Commodity Index.

As the draft offer document filed with SEBI has mentioned, at least 70 per cent of the fund's net assets will be invested in equities. There may be partial exposure to foreign securities, subject to regulatory limits.

Companies operating in natural resources industries include those that are considered as principally engaged in the discovery, development, production, or distribution of natural resources, or are service providers for these areas. Also covered are companies engaged in the development of technologies for the production or efficient use of natural resources in addition also furnishing of related supplies or services.

Natural resources include energy sources, metals, forest products, food and agriculture, and other basic commodities. Companies related to these areas may own or produce oil, natural gas, precious metals etc. Further, these may provide related services such as mining, drilling, rigging and the like.

The SBI MF fund, launched in July 2005, has delivered 31 per cent or so since inception (as on June 6), according to Value Research. Its key holdings, as on end-May, include Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation, Reliance Industries, Jindal Saw and Kesoram. It managed about Rs445 crore.
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