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HDFC cuts home loan rates
Banks mull more relief
Oil below $34
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Ranbaxy rejigs Board
Kochchar to head ICICI Bank
ADAG to hire 90,000
Montek: Fiscal dose needed for next year too
Spice Telecom is now Idea Cellular
US automakers to get $17.4 b
RoC to probe into Satyam-Maytas deal
Rs 4,000 cr in railways kitty from e-ticketing alone
BoJ cuts interest rate to near zero
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HDFC cuts home loan rates
Mumbai, December 19 Loans of up to Rs 20 lakh will attract an interest rate of 10.25 per cent and the rates for loans above this level has been pegged at 11.25 per cent down from 11.75 per cent. The new rates are effective from Monday. "The advantage of a cut in retail prime lending rates (RPLR) will accrue to all existing floating rate customers over a period of next three months based on their respective reset dates," HDFC said in a statement. The housing major's decision to reduce rates comes within 24 hours of home minister P. Chidambaram announcing in Parliament that the government will persuade banks to reduce loans for existing home loan borrowers as well. HDFC also decided to reduce the deposit rates by 50 basis points, the statement added. HDFC's closest competitor in home loans, ICICI Bank had earlier in this month reduced interest rates by 150 basis points to 11.50 per cent for fresh loans of up to Rs 20 lakh. Public sector banks have already capped the interest rates at 8.5 per cent for loans up to Rs 5 lakh to encourage low-income housing. For middle-income loans of Rs 5-20 lakh, the PSU banks would charge a maximum of 9.25 per cent. These rates would be reset only after five years. The scheme by PSU banks is valid up to June 30, 2009. The state-run banks have also done away with processing fee and pre-payment charges for loans up to Rs 20 lakh. In addition, the PSU lenders have decided to offer free life insurance cover to the home loan seekers as an add-on with the credit. PTI |
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Banks mull more relief
Mumbai, December 19 Among those pitching for softer interest rates is outgoing ICICI Bank CEO K.V. Kamath, who predicted that lending rates would fall to a single-digit in another 12 months. Speaking to reporters today after the Board meeting, which appointed Chanda Kochchar as the new head of the bank, Kamath said lower interest rates would predict accelerated economic growth. "Single-digit lending rate and double-digit growth should be looked forward to one year from now," Kamath said. According to the veteran banker, who would take over as ICICI Bank's non-executive chairman next year, inflation would be in the region of 2.5 to 3 per cent and would thus spark off softer interest rates. Prime lending rates of banks vary from 12.5 per cent and 17 per cent with private banks' PLRs at the higher end. Former finance minister, P. Chidambaram had urged banks to lower PLRs in the wake of rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of India. Analysts here feel that lower inflation below the 7 per cent mark would result in the apex bank cutting rates even further. Bankers here feel that the RBI may announce a softer interest rate regime when it undertakes the quarterly review of monetary policy in January next. "The focus would now be on increasing demand and fighting possible deflation," Shubhada Rao, chief economist, Yes Bank, has been quoted as saying. Others feel that the RBI could announce further cuts in repo and reverse repo rates before the year-end itself. Brokerages say, they expect the RBI to get aggressive about rate cuts. Nomura Financial Advisory Securities felt that the RBI could cut the CRR rate by 250 basis points, a 150-basis-point cut in the repo rate and a 100-basis-point reduction in the reverse repo by the middle of next year. |
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Oil below $34
London, December 19 US light crude for January delivery fell $2.64 to $33.58 a barrel by 1150 GMT. It earlier touched $33.44, the lowest since early February 2004. London Brent crude was trading 18 cents up at $43.54. Oil prices have fallen by more than $110 from their peak above $147 in July. They look set for their second biggest weekly decline since 2003. "Until traders see a sustained drop-off in the rate of demand destruction, the market will have a hard time establishing a floor," Jonathan Kornafel, Asia Director of Hudson Capital Energy, said. "From a credibility standpoint, OPEC has no choice but to bite the bullet for the next few months." Oil has continued to drop despite pledges by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) this week to remove 2.2 million barrels per day from its supply, which will be the largest ever reduction by the producer group. Other key markets were also falling on Friday. The dollar looked set for its biggest weekly decline since 1985 and world stocks fell as concerns about the US economy worried investors in the last full trading week of 2008. Reuters |
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Ranbaxy rejigs Board
New Delhi, December 19 Ranbaxy CEO and managing director Malvinder Mohan Singh will additionally assume the charge of chairman of the Board of Directors, while Daiichi Sankyo president and CEO Takashi Shoda has also been appointed as director in the board of Ranbaxy, the Gurgaon-based company said in a release. It has also appointed Ranbaxy Laboratories Chief Operating Officer Atul Sobti as COO in company's board. The other members in the board are Daiichi Sankyo senior executive officer Tstomu Une, Religare Enterprise Ltd CEO Sunil Godhwani, BOWS Pharmaceuticals AG General Partner Anthony H Wild, Mukand Ltd Co-Chairman and MD Rajesh V Shah, GCA Savvian group representative director Akihiro Watanbe and advocate Balinder Singh Dhillon. The reconstitution was approved by Ranbaxy's Board of Directors at a meeting held today, the company said. Earlier in June, Daiichi has entered into an share purchase agreement with Ranbaxy for acquiring a majority stake in the company. PTI |
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Kochchar to head ICICI Bank
Mumbai, December 19 Kamath will take over as the non-executive chairman of the board from N.Vaghul, who is slated to retire on April 30, 2009. According to ICICI Bank, Chanda Kochchar will hold office from May 1, 2009 to March 31, 2014. She had joined erstwhile ICICI Limited (ICICI) in 1984 and was elevated to the Board of Directors of ICICI Bank in 2001. During her career prior to becoming a member of the Board, she worked and held leadership positions across all key businesses, including corporate banking, project finance and retail banking, ICICI Bank said in its statement. |
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ADAG to hire 90,000
Mumbai, December 19 Debunking the reports that the group is laying off 6,000 persons in its financial services and entertainment businesses, a spokesperson said, "There are no layoffs." "In fact, the coming three months are high investment period for tax-saving products and we are going to appoint almost 75,000 to 90,000 agents and sales representatives in the coming months," he added. Earlier this month, Reliance Life Insurance's chief P Nandagopal had told PTI that the company would recruit 90,000 insurance agents and 2,500 sales managers by March 2009. PTI |
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Montek: Fiscal dose needed for next year too
New Delhi, December 19 Since global slowdown is not only this year but will continue next year also, fiscal stance that needs to be considered should not be just for this fiscal but also for the next year, Ahluwalia said on the sidelines of a function held to mark the 75th birth anniversary of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. On the fiscal side, I think it was necessary to give the economy the stimulus it needs, we have made it clear that fiscal deficit will be larger and government will report that to the Parliament at appropriate time. Nobody is saying that we should stick to fiscal deficit target, he added. He said the plan panel was working on plan allocation estimates for the next fiscal. In my view, need for fiscal stimulus will not end this fiscal, it will go beyond that, he added. The government had cut across the board four per cent excise duty recently, besides increasing planned expenditure as stimulus package to perk up the economy, hit by global slowdown and earlier rising interest rates regime. Yesterday, the government sought Parliamentary nod for additional around Rs 42,000 crore for planned expenditure. In the first supplementary, the government has already got Parliament approval for Rs 1.05 lakh crore as the additional planned outlay. |
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Spice Telecom is now Idea Cellular
Chandigarh, December 19 Talking to TNS on the sidelines of the launch, Ambrish Jain, director, operations, Idea Cellular, said the main focus of the company now would be to consolidate the subscriber base by providing the best available services to its subscribers. In order to do so, we will be making investments in our cellular network. The current network will be made more robust and reliable and all configuration issues will be resolved. We propose to add 1,000 new sites on our network in Punjab, so as to provide seamless connectivity to users, he said. Jain said, this year they propose to increase the number of cell sites from 2,500 to 3,500. We have already realigned more than 500 microwave hops. So far, our reach in Punjab is up to 80 per cent of the subscribers, which we will increase it to 95 per cent by the end of the year. The 15 per cent increase will be seen mainly in the rural areas. The teledensity in rural areas of Punjab is still 20 per cent, which has a huge scope for expansion, he said. Idea Cellular had acquired B K Modi-owned Spice Group's 40.8 per cent stake in Spice Communications earlier this year. Though initially after the takeover, the company had witnessed the down slide in subscriber base, they have now managed to grow steadily. The latest data from the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) shows that the total subscriber base of the company is 23 lakh, with the company recording a 20 per cent growth in its subscribers each month since October. In November alone, the company has added 50,000 subscribers. The company also plans to launch its services in six more circles in next year. At present, the company is operating in 14 circles, including Punjab. Next year, we propose to start our operations in Orissa, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and North East, he added. |
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US automakers to get $17.4 b
Washington, December 19 Some $13.4 billion will be made available in December and January from the $700 billion fund that was originally designed to rescue struggling financial institutions, but the loans would be called back if the automakers cannot prove they are viable by March 31, the official said. The loans would require limits on executive compensation and other perks, and the automakers would also have to provide warrants for non-voting stocks. Reuters |
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RoC to probe into Satyam-Maytas deal
New Delhi, December 19 "We have asked the RoC to look into the whole issue and submit the report within three weeks," corporate affairs minister Prem Chand
Gupta said. Satyam Computers, India's fourth largest software company, had announced a deal to buy out two group-promoted companies and then reversed the deal within a few hours under pressure from investors. Asked whether the RoC would also look into the possibility of company's intention to influence the stock market, the minister said, "RoC will go into the entire gamut of issues which also include the stock market-related activities." PTI |
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Rs 4,000 cr in railways kitty from e-ticketing alone
New Delhi, December 19 Reports point out that the Indian Railways has added more than Rs 4,000 crore in its coffers through two schemes, which, till last year, were not so popular with the commuters. They are the revolutionary e-ticketing and the Tatkal ticketing, the former actually resulting in a major facility for the travellers. According to statistics, the Railways earned about Rs 4,000 crore till November this year from e-ticketing alone. Further, it has added over Rs 350 crore from the Tatkal tickets, reflecting a major success of the two schemes. Officials point out that amount earned by the Railways through e-ticketing is nearly double the amount it made during the last fiscal. It, also, is a pointer to the shift in peoples preference of reserving tickets through the better environs of their offices, homes or cyber cafes rather than standing in long queues. The Railways has earned Rs 3,909 crore from its e-ticketing scheme this year (till November 2008). And with four months of the fiscal still to go, the profit is bound to rise. The e-ticketing facility was launched by Railways in 2005. Under the scheme, passengers can book their tickets using Internet by opting any of the two options e-ticket and i-ticket and have to just carry their identification card while travelling for security purposes. The officials point out that initially the e-ticketing was not so popular. However, with the penetration of technology through out the country, it has become a preferred mean for reservations. Incidentally, in the financial year 2007-08, the Railways earned Rs 1,295.74 crore from the facility. The ministry is apparently happy with the success of the scheme and now wants to make it more user-friendly to add more customers to its kitty. However, there are no plans to modify it since it is yielding good results. The Railways has also earned Rs 356 crore from its Tatkal scheme this year till October. The earnings are again expected to go up. The Tatkal (immediate) scheme of reservation was launched by Railways a couple of years back.
In 2006-07, railways earned a Rs 207-crore profit as compared to Rs 396 crore in 2007-08 from this scheme. |
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BoJ cuts interest rate to near zero
Tokyo/New Delhi, December 19 The Japanese central bank's move comes just days after the US Federal Reserve reduced its benchmark lending rate to the range of 0 and 0.25 per cent. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) today slashed the uncollateralised overnight call rate by 20 basis points to 0.1 per cent from 0.3 per cent, its second rate cut in two months. BoJ also announced several steps with the aim of ensuring stability in financial markets as well as facilitating corporate financing by conducting appropriate money market operations. The bank has decided to take measures to further facilitate corporate financing, including outright purchases of commercial papers in addition to actions regarding outright purchases of Japanese government bonds. PTI |
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Rupee loses 31 paise Allahabad Bank ONGC dividend Gold tumbles Rs 330 |
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Mumbai, December 19
Chandigarh, December 19
