The Hindu Business Line : Thursday, July 31, 2008

MONEY & BANKING

INTEREST RATES: Automakers draw up strategies to beat high interest regime
To sharpen focus on finance arms, take up aggressive cost reduction. Mumbai July 30 The Indian automobile industry is gearing up for a bumpier ride in the coming months. With a hardening of interest regime round the corner and a debilitating ...

PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS: PNB to hike PLR, deposit rates from Aug 1
New Delhi, July 30 On the heels of the Reserve Bank of India announcing its ‘dear money’ policy on Tuesday, Punjab National Bank (PNB) has decided to raise its benchmark prime lending rate (PLR) by 100 basis points to 14 per cent ...

CREDIT RATING: Crisil ranking of EPFO fund managers not reflected in final selection
New Delhi, July 30 The best asset management companies in terms of qualitative rankings made by Crisil to the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) have not found their place among the selected four for managing EPFO’s ...

FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE: Fee income beefs up banks’ Q1 bottomline
Global presence, technology, complex product suite help. Mumbai, July 30 Strong growth in fee income in the first quarter has helped many banks show higher profits and offset the pressure on margins. ...

INTEREST RATES: Banks repricing term loans as margin shrink
Bangalore, July 30 Faced with mounting margin pressures, banks have now begun repricing some of the term loans on their books. Top bankers said the repricing would include some of the term advances made in 2005 and 2006, when interest rates ...

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: Rupee near key resistance
The steep climb in the rupee caused by the sell-off in crude prices and the victory of the UPA government in the no-trust vote was arrested at 41.7 against the dollar. Terror attacks in two Indian cities and the resultant decline in equities ...

CRR & BANK RATES: A fight against rising inflation
New Delhi, July 30 Predictably, the apex bank has lived up to its reputation of adhering to a strict monetary regimen when inflation and inflationary expectations have been rearing their dark heads, derailing the fruits of growth and hurting ...

FIXED DEPOSITS: Bank deposits in Kerala cross Rs 1-lakh-cr mark
NRE deposits pegged at Rs 29,889 cr. The total bank deposits of the commercial banking system in Kerala reached Rs 1,05,488 crore as on March 31, 2008. ...

FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE: PNB’s net rises 21% in Q1
New Delhi, July 30 Punjab National Bank has reported a 20.6 per cent increase in net profit in the first quarter of the current fiscal to Rs 512.40 crore (Rs 425.07 crore). Total income of the bank for the period under review increased to Rs ...

FINANCIAL SERVICES: Reliance Capital consolidated net profit up 5%
Future Capital Holdings narrows loss. Mumbai, July 30 Reliance Capital today reported an 8 per cent increase in its standalone net profit, at Rs 326.8 crore against 302.4 crore posted during the corresponding year-ago quarter. The ...

GOVT BONDS: Bond prices up
Bond prices gained on Wednesday, after Tuesday’s sharp fall, due to value-buying, low oil prices and slight easing in liquidity conditions. The market has also factored in inflation at 12 per cent, said a dealer. The outlook does not seem ...

PRIVATE BANKS: Small businesses lift City Union Bank’s profit
Chennai, July 30 City Union Bank has reported a 23 per cent growth in its net profit for the April-June quarter of the current year, despite a provision of Rs 4 crore for ESOP. The bank made a net profit of Rs 26.24 crore for the quarter (Rs ...

CONSUMER FINANCE: Premium car makers woo customers with smart finance options
New Delhi, July 30 Premium car buyers who may be having a second thought about making their purchase mainly due to interest rates climbing may be in for a surprise as there are attractive financing options that could lower their borrowing cost ...

FOREX: Kerala plans more forex counters

LIFE INSURANCE: LIC launches policy for women
Mumbai, July 30 LIC has launched an insurance policy designed exclusively for women called Jeevan Bharati-I. The policy is essentially a money back policy with a term of 15 or 20 years. Besides critical illness and accident benefit riders, it ...

INTEREST RATES: Axis Bank hikes PLR by 50 bps
Mumbai, July 30 Banks have started hiking lending rates, following the 50-basis point hike in repo and 25-basis point hike in CRR by the Reserve Bank of India. ...

FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE: DCB net down 5% in Q1 on provisioning
Mangalore, July 30 The private sector Development Credit Bank (DCB) recorded a net profit of Rs 5.44 crore in the first quarter of 2008-09 against Rs 5.74 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, registering a decline of 5.23 ...

FOREX: Rupee gains against dollar
The rupee gained against the dollar on Wednesday tracking the upswing in the domestic stock market and the ease in oil prices. The domestic currency opened at 42.52/53 and touched an intra-day low of 42.58/59. It then appreciated to finally end ...

SHORT TERM INSTRUMENTS: Call rates end higher
Call rates closed higher at 8.80-8.90 per cent, against the previous close of 8.70-8.80 per cent. In the one-day repo auction under the liquidity adjustment facility, the RBI received and accepted 11 bids worth Rs 11,555 crore. There were no ...