Rupee rises
Mumbai: The rupee strengthened by five paise against the dollar on Tuesday. The rupee opened at 40.39/40 and after trading in a narrow range throughout the day, closed at 40.38, up from the previous close of 40.43.

In forwards, the six-month premia closed at 1.71 per cent (1.79 per cent) while the 12-month closed at 1.82 per cent (1.85 per cent).

Bonds: Bond prices fell by about five paise and the yield went up by one basis point on profit taking by traders and speculation that the central bank may step in drain away the surplus cash from the system. The total traded volumes on the order matching system were Rs7,720 crore (Rs14,220 crore).

G-secs: The 7.49 per cent 10-year 2017 paper opened at Rs97.50 (7.86 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs97.0 2 (7.93 per cent YTM) on Tuesday, against the previous close of Rs97.07 (7.92 per cent YTM). The 7.99 per cent 10-year 2017 paper opened at Rs100.80 (7.87 per cent YTM) and closed at Rs100.67 (7.89 per cent YTM).

Call rates: The inter-bank call rates closed at 0.5-0.6 per cent on Tuesday, lower than the previous close of 1.5-2 per cent backed by surplus cash in the system. The Reserve Bank of India received bids worth Rs 90,445 crore from banks through the reverse repo window under the two sessions of Liquidity Adjustment Facility while it accepted bids to the tune of Rs2,990 crore.

Reverse repo: In the first one-day reverse repo auction, the RBI received 42 bids for Rs57,540 crore while it accepted Rs1,999 crore. In the second one-day reverse repo auction, the central bank received 33 bids for Rs32,905 crore while it accepted Rs991 crore. There were no repo bids in the first and second one-day auctions.

The CBLO market saw 319 trades aggregating Rs31,303.35 crore in the 0.01-0.15 per cent range.
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HDFC Bank Q1 net up 34 per cent to Rs321 crore
Mumbai: HDFC Bank has posted a 34 percent increase in net profit at Rs321.23 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2007 (Q1FY08) when compared with Rs239.30 crore for Q1FY07.

According to an official release issued by the bank to the BSE today, total income has increased to Rs2641.70 crore for Q1FY08 from Rs1795.21 crore for Q1FY07.
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Development Credit Bank offloads stake to Tatas
Mumbai: Development Credit Bank (DCB) has sold little less than a 5 percent stake to the Tatas. The investment is being routed through the newly formed Tata Capital, a company created to give an added focus to the group's presence in the financial services business.

The bank recently held a meeting to seek shareholders approval for making a preferential issue of shares to Tata Capital and its associates besides four other institutional investors. The bank is proposing to issue shares at a price of Rs105 each and mobilise Rs310 crore. The fresh issue of shares will constitute up to 16.6 per cent of the bank's post-issue share capital, it said in a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The preference issue will result in the bank's capital adequacy ratio, which currently stands at 10.5 per cent, shooting up to 18.5 per cent, post issue, according to company officials. Development Credit Bank turned around its business in 2006-07. The bank reported a net profit of Rs7.3 crore in the recently concluded fiscal, compared with a net loss of Rs85 crore in the previous year.
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NHB launches housing price index
New Delhi: The National Housing Bank (NHB), the government's apex housing refinance institution, has launched India's first housing price index that will track fluctuations in the property market and collect data on the parallel black economy.

The data is expected to form the basis for policy decisions such as rationalising stamp duty, capital gains tax, municipal tax and determining mortgage rates.

While NHB has so far created just an aggregate index, it will refine this model to create indices for low-, middle and high-income houses. The NHB will arrive at a median and the standard deviations from it.

A pilot index has been developed for five cities — Delhi, Bangalore, Bhopal, Kolkata and Mumbai — for five years from 2001 to 2005 and is comparable with inflation. Initially, NHB will bring out the index for these cities every six months.

In the next phase, NHB proposes to compile the indices for 35 cities with a population of over a million and will subsequently cover 63 cities under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
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South Indian Bank Q1 net up 102 per cent
Kochi: The net profit of South Indian Bank has grown by 102 per cent to Rs30.37 crore during the first quarter of the current financial year, from Rs15.05 crore in the previous year. The total income grew by 41.85 per cent to Rs322 crore (Rs227 crore) and the gross profit was up at Rs53 crore (Rs42 crore). The chairman of the bank, Dr V.A. Joseph, said that the bank would soon be approaching the market with a placement of additional two crore shares either as preferential allotment or by way of Qualified Institutional Placement.

On a quarter-to-quarter basis, the total business of the bank grew by 25.94 per cent to Rs21,343 crore (Rs16,947 crore). While deposits grew by 25.33 per cent to Rs12,834 crore (Rs10,240 crore), advances rose 26.87 per cent to Rs8,509 crore (Rs6,707 crore). The bank has targeted a turnover of Rs25,000 crore for the year.

The gross NPA fell from 5.42 per cent to 3.7 per cent while net NPA was down from 2.07 per cent to 0.83 per cent. The bank plans to bring down the net NPA to 0.5 per cent at the end of the year.

The EPS has gone up from Rs8.55 to Rs17.62 and the book value has risen from Rs93 to Rs107.
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