Thursday, April 26, 2012

Rupee gains 11 paise vs dollar in early trade


MUMBAI: The rupee on Thursday appreciated by 11 paise to 52.43 against the US dollar in early trade on the Interbank Foreign Exchange market, as the American currency fell against other currencies overseas.

Besides gains in euro and other currencies against the American currency, a higher opening in the equity market and dollar selling by exporters and some banks supported the rupee, dealers said.

The rupee strengthened by 14 paise to close at 52.54/55 yesterday against the US currency on fresh dollar selling by banks and exporters.
see more : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Rupee-gains-11-paise-vs-dollar-in-early-trade/articleshow/12876606.cms

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

India Inc’s funding costs to soar after S&P's negative outlook


MUMBAI: Indian corporates could see their overseas borrowing costs shoot up should Standard & Poor's negative outlook result in an actual downgrade. A downgrade would hit overall funding and would inevitably end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy by hurting the economy rather than merely providing an opinion on its creditworthiness .

"A downgrade would have huge implications for the economy. India is at the lowest rung of the investment grade and a downgrade would result in the country falling to the junk category. This will result in certain allocation for India going away and a rise in the funding costs of corporates. This will also have implications for funding of the country's growing balance sheet/ funding requirements," said Ashish Vaidya, head fixed income currency and commodities at UBS India.

Besides revising its outlook on the sovereign, S&P has also put on its negative list three IT companies-Infosys , TCS and Wipro. Similarly three public sector entities NTPC, NHPC and Steel Authority of India have had their outlook revised to negative . Bankers say that international investors mandated to put their money in only investment grade paper will be wary of investing in bonds issued by PSUs because of the downgrade possibility.
For corporates a significant portion of funding comes from the external route. The global plans of Indian companies also depend on the availability of international finance. All the bigticket acquisitions by large business houses have been on the back of financing from multinational banks. "We expect spreads to be under pressure in the near term with an overhang of a potential downgrade should there be no improvement in the macroeconomic conditions or growth prospects, but issuances from strong Indian companies and institutions will continue to see investor interest ," said Sunil Agarwal, head, institutional clients group, Deutsche Bank, India.

According to Gautam, Triveri, MD & head-equities , Religare Capital Markets, the outlook revision is incrementally negative for the rupee and capital flows (portfolio and direct ). "We believe the rating remaining at investment grade contains the damage. Had a rating downgrade (to non-investment grade-Junk ) happened , it would be far more negative, since it would escalate funding costs for Indian firms abroad, and preclude some FIIs to access local debt and equity markets."

But several bankers see the downgrade as a clear and present danger. "I think that there are chances of a downgrade if there is no improvement in the current account or there is no reform and fiscal consolidation ," said Vaidya. S&P has indicated that it will wait a few months to see if there is any improvement in the fiscal position or the direction of reforms . However, the rating agency has made it clear that it could take a downgrade decision at any time if there is deterioration in any of the macroeconomic parameters.

According to Deutsche Bank, a key risk to India's ratings outlook in the coming year or two is that the fiscal adjustment envisaged in the budget is not accomplished due to unfavorable macro developments like a further slowdown in growth and policy slippages such as a rise in subsidies. "More crucially, if the slippage also reflects no medium term movement toward expanding the tax base and expenditure restraint, the ratings outlook would invariably worsen," the bank said in a research report.

Corporates and banks will also find it tough to raise funds through international bond issues. A large number of funds that invest in these securities are mandated to put money only in investment grade paper while there are risk taking investors who buy "junk" bonds they demand a high rate of interest.

"The negative outlooks on the 11 financial institutions reflect the outlook on the sovereign credit rating on India. We could lower the ratings on these financial institutions if we lower the sovereign rating or the stand-alone credit profiles of these financial institutions deteriorate sharply or we believe that such deterioration is unlikely in most cases. We could revise the outlook to stable if we take a similar action on the sovereign rating," S&P said in a statement.
See More: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/India-Incs-funding-costs-to-soar-after-SPs-negative-outlook/articleshow/12875087.cms

Saturday, April 21, 2012

SBI targets 25% deposit growth in 2012-13

HYDERABAD: The country's largest lender State Bank of India today said it is targetting a growth of 25 per cent in deposits and 22 per cent in advances in the current fiscal.

A Krishna Kumar, Managing Director and Group Executive (National Banking), SBI, said mid corporate and retail sectors, which did not fare well in the last fiscal, are expected to contribute to the growth in advances.

"The preliminary figures (of SBI) indicated that as on March 12, we have roughly grown about 18 per cent in deposits and 15-16 per cent in credit.
In the current year 2012-13, we are targetting a growth of 25 per cent in deposits and 20 to 22 per cent growth in credit," Krishna Kumar told reporters.

"We have more than 14,000 branches right now and we expect to open may be another 1,000 branches in the current year.

A mixture of opening new branches and schemes for depositors and advances oriented schemes and the fact that the economy would look to be on the upswing help achieve this target," he added.

He was speaking to reporters after the inauguration of the second SMECCC -- a centralised credit processing centre for SME accounts -- in the city.

Replying to a query, he said the SME sector in the country is under stress due to economic factors but is expected to perform better in the current fiscal.

"There was lot of sluggish growth in the mid corporate sector and also in the retail banking side.

A little more focus on the mid corporate and retail segment will see this (22 per cent growth in advances) through," he said.

On interest rates, he said reduction in the interest rates will not affect the bank's Net Interest Margin (NIM) as there will be adjustments on deposits side as well.

IMF doubles its lending firepower

The IMF says it has received firm commitments of more than $430bn.

The money is to help economies in trouble and includes just under £10bn ($15bn) from the UK in loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

It is part of a global effort to bolster the fund's lending capacity, which IMF managing director Christine Lagarde wanted to increase by $400bn.

The money doubles the fund's firepower which threatened to become overwhelmed by the eurozone crisis.

Australia will contribute $7bn, Singapore $4bn and the Republic of Korea $15bn.

The IMF's managing director, Christine Lagarde, said that some countries including Russia, India, China and Brazil had made private pledges but did not want to go public until they had discussed the pledges back home.

In a joint statement following the meeting in Washington, the IMF's International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) and the G20 finance ministers and Central Bank governors said: "There are firm commitments to increase resources made available to the IMF by over $400bn in addition to the quota increase under the 2010 reform."

"These resources will be available for the whole membership of the IMF, and not earmarked for any particular region."

The eurozone as a whole is contributing $200bn of the total and Japan is another major supplier of funds and is lending $60bn.

Interest

Analysis

The IMF has doubled its lending capacity. But first it will have to borrow the money. The agreement enables the IMF to borrow an extra 430 billion dollars. It can lend that to other member countries in financial stress. The aim is global financial stability ad a sounder footing for the world economic recovery. What that means in practice is the IMF is getting a very large hose to douse the financial fires in the eurozone, if they threaten to burn out of control. Even then, it is probably not big enough for the worst the eurozone could face. The money is not specifically tied to the euro crisis and it is certainly not for the exclusive use of the countries using the currency. But if there were no euro crisis, the IMF would not have been passing round the hat.

UK Chancellor George Osborne said the loan was important to the UK: "It's in Britain's interest that we have a stable and strong world economy - that creates jobs in Britain."

He added that any loan made would bring in a return in the form of interest.

He can lend up to £10bn without parliamentary approval. He had some room for manoeuvre because parliament has previously approved £40bn of loans, of which only £30bn has been committed.

But this latest pledge is unpopular with some members of Mr Osborne's Conservative Party, who had been urging him not to sign up to an increase.

Backbench MP Peter Bone described the decision as "bonkers", describing any efforts to prop up the eurozone as a waste of time.

The UK's shadow chancellor, Ed Balls said: "The IMF cannot and should not become the de facto central bank of the euro area.

"The IMF is being put up to step in and play the role that the European Central Bank should be playing - a strategy which cannot work and is self-defeating by highlighting the lack of a proper ECB firewall."

The UK Treasury pointed out that no country has ever lost money lending to the IMF in its 67-year history.

Commitments so far

  • Euro area: $200bn
  • Japan: $60bn
  • South Korea $15bn
  • UK: $15bn
  • Sweden: $10bn
  • Norway: $9.3bn
  • Poland: $8bn
  • Australia: $7bn
  • Denmark: $7bn
  • Singapore: $4bn

Source: IMF. Some figures are approximate

It says its contribution to the IMF is not public spending. All UK loans to the IMF are financed from the UK's Official Reserves, remain UK assets and do not contribute to public sector net debt.

The UK's move was welcomed by the head of an important House of Commons committee of MPs.

Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Committee, said: "This is not just sensible, it is essential.

"The IMF is the only fire-brigade available to the global economy. It is vital that the IMF has the necessary tools to deal with the current eurozone crisis and the risks to wider global financial stability."

Target

There is still a question about what other major economies will do.

Brazil wants to have a bigger say in running the IMF in return for a commitment of extra money, while the US is not likely to offer any money because doing so would attract criticism at home in a presidential election year, according to BBC economics correspondent Andrew Walker.

Brazil said the US and Europe dominated the IMF and that meant IMF policies favoured the two blocs.

Brazil's voting power is the same as the Netherlands and smaller than Spain, Italy and the UK's, although the Brazlian economy is bigger than all of these.

Its finance minister, Guido Mantega, said emerging countries - including his - were "paying a high price" for the loose monetary policies of advanced economies that had been endorsed by the IMF.

He said though that they would also contribute further to the fund to help reach the desired target of $400bn: "It's likely that we will reach an agreement around $400bn to increase IMF resources."

He said who would give what would be decided in principle by the next (G20) meeting in Los Cabos in Mexico two months from now.

Russia's deputy finance minister Sergei Storchak has already said that his country will offer $10bn and that he is confident that the IMF will reach its funding target.

What is the International Monetary Fund?

Committing the extra money does not mean it will actually need to be loaned.

The German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, said the extra funds were a sign of international co-operation: "The Europeans have done what they have promised, what we had agreed on.

"We [the G7 leading developed nations] agreed that the debate on IMF resources has to be brought to an end here. That is not a sole European issue."

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More

 
Design by Free WordPress Themes | Bloggerized by Lasantha - Premium Blogger Themes | Top WordPress Themes