The Hindu Business Line : Wednesday, December 03, 2003

Fed chief faces tough choices in poll year
TIME and again, the US economy confounds pessimists. The data flowing in continues to be stellar. On Monday, the widely watched Institute of Supply Management (ISM) index put on more weight with its reading at 62 levels compared to 57 last ... More

FOREX

Rupee up; bond market sees rally
MUMBAI: The rupee gained another three paise on Tuesday on the back of a gain of 8 paise on Monday. The domestic currency closed at 45.69/70 against the dollar. State-run banks were seen buying up the dollar inflows taking it to its ... More

HOUSING FINANCE

PNB lowers home loan rate
PUNJAB National Bank (PNB) has yet again reduced its rate of interest on housing loans, bringing it down to one of the lowest in the banking industry. While the rate of interest for floating rate loans for a 10 year period has been set at 7.5 ... More

RBI & OTHER CENTRAL BANKS

Managing excess liquidity — RBI moots stabilisation fund, standing deposit facility
THE Reserve Bank of India has made two suggestions to manage the excess liquidity in the system in the absence of adequate volume of Government securities to undertake "sterilisation" operations. These are creating a market stabilisation fund ... More

PRIVATE BANKS

`Ready to resume talks with Sivasankaran' — Nadar bodies want TMB board dissolved
THE Nadar Mahajana Sangam and the Dakshinamara Nadar Sangam have demanded that the board of the Tamilnad Mercantile Bank be dissolved. They also wanted that the 34 per cent stake in the bank's equity with Mr C. Sivasankaran of Sterling group ... More

Lakshmi Vilas Bank pegs growth on SBUs
LAKSHMI Vilas Bank (LVB) has decided to set up three strategic business units (SBUs) to cash in on the increasing opportunities in the large and mid-corporates, and retail and personal segments. Disclosing this to Business Line, the LVB ... More

PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS

Syndicate Bank in talks with general insurers
THE public sector Syndicate Bank has proposed entering into bancassurance arrangements with general insurance business to diversify its fee-based income sources. Speaking to Business Line, the bank Chairman and Managing Director, Mr ... More

GOVT BONDS

Panel not for investing Govt surplus in gilts
THE RBI working group on instruments of sterilisation has suggested that the Government surpluses parked with the Reserve Bank should not be automatically invested and should remain as interest-free balances with the apex bank. The RBI Act does ... More

Govt paper auction

FIXED DEPOSITS

BoI reduces deposit rates
BANK of India has reduced the interest rate on rupee deposits for select maturities by 0.25 percentage points, effective from December 1. However, interest rates on 3-5 years maturity period have been raised by 0.25 percentage points. ... More

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

HSBC picks up 20 pc stake in UTI Bank
A DAY after its CEO-designate expressed interest in picking up minority stake in Indian banks, HSBC today agreed to buy 20.08 per cent stake in UTI Bank from private equity firm, CDC Capital Partners, at around Rs 90 per share. While sources at ... More

IndusInd-ALF merger: Ambit gets mandate
INDUSIND Bank has appointed Ambit Corporate Finance, an independent firm of consultants, to "further evaluate all the relevant aspects" of the merger of the bank with Ashok Leyland Finance. The bank's board, which met on Tuesday, approved ... More

RIGHTS ISSUES

Cholamandalam Invest mulls rights issue
CHOLAMANDALAM Investment & Finance Company has informed the stock exchange that the company's board will consider a proposal to come out with a rights issue. The details of the issue would be announced after the board meeting to be held on ... More

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