Rupee weakens
Mumbai: The rupee fell by about 23 paise due to dollar buying by importers as well as by following the Japanese yen against the dollar.

The rupee opened at 40.86/89, touched an intra-day low of 41.08 and finally closed at 40.98, against the previous day's close of 40.75.

Dealers said the RBI was not present in the market.

In forwards, the six-month premia closed at 3.23 per cent (2.95 per cent) and the 12-month ended at 3.01 per cent (2.84 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices fell by around 20-25 paise on Wednesday following the hardening of the 10-year US yields to 5.28 per cent from 5.16 per cent. Domestic yields for the 10-year paper went up by around four basis points from 8.37 per cent to 8.41 per cent. The total traded volumes on the order matching system were Rs3,685 crore (Rs2,780 crore).

Bids for the 91-day Treasury bills were fully subscribed. The Reserve Bank of India received 117 bids for Rs9,997.75 crore while it accepted 45 bids for the notified amount of Rs3,500 crore. The cut-off price for the 91-day T-bills was at Rs98.10 (7.77 per cent YTM). The bids for the 182-day Treasury bills were also fully subscribed. The RBI received 114 bids for Rs9,925 crore while it accepted 15 bids for the notified amount of Rs2,500 crore. The cut-off price was at Rs96.25 (7.81 per cent YTM).

G-secs: The 7.49 per cent-10-year paper opened at Rs93.90 (8.41 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs93.96 (8.4 per cent YTM), against the previous close of Rs94.18 (8.37 per cent YTM).

The 8.07 per cent-10-year paper opened at Rs98.57 (8.29 per cent) and closed at Rs98.89 (8.24 per cent YTM), against the previous close of Rs99 (8.22 per cent YTM).

Call rates: The inter-bank call rates closed at 2.75-3.25 per cent on Wednesday against the previous close of 3-3.25 per cent.

Reverse repo: In the first one-day reverse repo auction, the RBI received 28 bids for Rs32,580 crore while it accepted Rs1,998 crore. In the second one-day reverse repo auction, the RBI received 30 bids for Rs31,880 crore while it accepted Rs999 crore. There were no repo bids in the first and second one-day auctions.

CBLO: The CBLO market saw 377 trades aggregating Rs33,378.05 crore in the 0.06 per cent-1 per cent range.
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Birla Sun Life plans to recover market share
Kolkata: Birla Sun Life Insurance Company plans to double its capital base to halt its declining market share and attain 100 per cent business growth in 2007-08.

The company is targeting over Rs2,000 crore in first premium income during the current fiscal up from Rs953 crore recorded last year.

The company is also aiming at doubling the total premium revenue from Rs1,746 crore recorded on March 31, 2007. This requires doubling the company’s capital base of Rs672 crore as on March 31, 2007.

As part of its growth plans, the company would set up 210 additional branches within the first half of the current fiscal. Birla Sun Life has 137 branches now and also increase the number of its agent advisors to one lakh in the current fiscal from 58,000 now.

Birla Sun Life launched the “Gold Plus Plan” - a unit linked insurance plan. Under the plan, the policy holder can pay a premium of Rs10,000 for three years. The plan offers 100 per cent equity exposure. People between the age groups of 18 to 70 years can invest their money in the plan.

The company hopes these steps would help it recover its market share from the current five per cent. Three years ago, the company had a market share of 12 per cent.
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Life insurance industry growth at 49 per cent in April
New Delhi: The life insurance industry grew by 49 per cent in April while general insurance players saw 16 per cent increase in April, the first month of the current financial year.

Life Insurance Corporation, ICICI Prudential and SBI Life led the growth and helped the life insurance industry collect Rs2,982 crore in April this year compared with Rs1,996 crore collected in the same month last year, according to data compiled by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority.

However insurers like Bajaj Allianz, ING Vysya Life and Reliance Life saw a decline in premium collections during the period under review.

LIC saw new premiums grow 57 per cent to Rs2,134 crore in April against Rs1,355 crore a year ago. It had a market share of 71.56 per cent in April.

The 15 private players together saw their business grow 32 per cent to Rs848 crore with a market share of 28.44 per cent.

ICICI Prudential topped the private players’ chart with its premium income rising 84.5 per cent to Rs271 crore with 9.08 per cent share of the market.

Bajaj Allianz on the other hand saw a 15 per cent decline in business and collected Rs124 crore in premium with a market share of 4.16 per cent.

The general insurance industry grew 16 per cent in April, which also saw ICICI Lombard emerging as the second-largest non-life insurance player.
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ICICI Bank to raise Rs8,750cr via follow on offering
Mumbai: India’s largest private sector bank, ICICI Bank will raise Rs8,750 crore in the domestic market through a follow-on public offering (FPO). The bank has reserved 5 per cent in the FPO for existing retail shareholders of the bank as on June 13, 2007, whose equity does not exceeding Rs 1 lakh.

The issue is expected to be launched on June 19 and will remain open for subscription till June 22.

To encourage retail participation, the bank is expected to offer the shares at a discount to retail investors. In its previous issue, the bank had offered its shares at a 5 per cent discount to retail investors.

In addition to the issue, ICICI Bank plans to raise another $2.5 billion from the issue of American depository receipts, with a greenshoe option.
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Loan limit hiked for the poor
Mumbai: The Reserve Bank has raised the limit of the amount of loan the poor can avail of under the Differential Rate of Interest (DRI) scheme from Rs6,500 to Rs15,000 and for housing loan from Rs5,000 to Rs20,000 per beneficiary.

This assistance under the scheme is provided by the banks to low income groups at a concessional rate of interest of 4 per cent.
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