Week That Was 30 September - 6 October | Page 3

Economy & Markets Commodities & Forex ? Coal India's 5% follow-on public offer is likely to hit the market by the second week of December, just ahead of a three-day strike called by the unions for December 17. ? Benchmark 10-year bond yields dropped as much as 22 basis points at one point, while overnight index swap rates also plunged. ?Nifty had surged close to 6,000 mark in early trade on the back of rally in rate sensitives after the Reserve Bank of India reduced the rate under the marginal standing facility (MSF) by 50 basis points to 9 percent and introduced lending to banks for seven days and 14 days, instead of the current practice of just a day. ?The MSF cut will ease short-term rates and companies are likely to borrow from the commercial paper (CP) market instead of banks. ?India's foreign exchange (forex) reserves fell by $1.11 billion to $276.26 billion for the week ended on Sep 27 as compared to $277.38 billion in the previous week due to a sharp drop in the value of foreign currency assets. ?The government wants to kill the rupee NDF market - where contracts in the currency worth billions of dollars are traded every day - by persuading those active in it to shift to the onshore currency futures market in India by easing restrictions. ?US default could lead to a "Lehman-type global collapse" and could slash about 80 basis points from India's GDP, which means that growth in fiscal year 2013-14 could be as low as 3.8 per cent. Sensex 19,368 19,230 18,947 18,598 30-Sep-13 30 Sept 6 Oct 01-Oct-13 02-Oct-13 03-Oct-13 04-Oct-13