Banking stocks have turned attractive once again. Apart from the possibility of capital appreciation, dividend yields at current prices provide an added advantage to investors. Entering these banking counters at current levels could fetch returns in the form of dividend (assuming these banks maintain the dividend for the current fiscal too). State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Travancore (SBT), Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC), IndusInd Bank, Bank of India (BoI) and Dena Bank could provide a dividend yield in the range of 6.7 per cent to 8.82 per cent. Moreover, the returns (including capital appreciation) for the investors could be more considering that most of these banks are now trading at attractive price-earning multiples. Almost all the banking scrips are trading close to their 52-week lows.

Tata AMC to launch quasi-money market fund: Tata Mutual Fund shortly plans to launch an open-end, high liquidity scheme. Christened Tata Liquid Fund, it will be the ninth short-term debt fund after Birla Asset Management set the trend in June last year with the launch of Birla Cash Plus. A no-load scheme, Tata Liquid Fund will initially be launched only in Mumbai and later extended to other centres, at the discretion of the trustee company. The initial offer is likely to be open for three days. Tata Liquid will be the seventh fund from Tata Asset Management Company. The AMC currently manages three open-end and three closed-end schemes.

Software Solutions results fail to enthuse market: Continuing with the tremendous growth witnessed in the information technology sector, the Chennai-based Software Solution Integrated Ltd (SSIL) has earned a 63 per cent rise in net profit for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1998. During the period under consideration, SSIL's net profit grew to Rs 10.08 crore from Rs 6.18 crore earned during year ended June 1997. SSIL scrip on BSE, however, has lost around Rs 26 to Rs 376 since August 10. The scrip had witnessed a phenomenal rise on the bourse going up from its end-June level of Rs 192 to its August 10 high of Rs 402.

NSE completes 195th cycle: The National Stock Exchange has successfully completed its 195th settlement since inception on August 20. The total value of the investment was Rs 850.72 crore for securities and Rs 189.61 crore in funds. The quantity of securities settled through dematerialised mode was 87.32 lakhs valued at Rs 133.56 crore. The payout was successfully completed and allshortages to the extent of 1.02 per cent were auctioned.

Sebi receives one offer document: During the week ended August 14, one draft offer document for public issue of Alliance Management& Fiscal Services to the tune of Rs 2.50 crore was received by Sebi. During the same week no observations were communicated by Sebi.

Sebi registers Central Depository: The Securities and Exchange Board of India has granted certificate of registration to the Central Depository Services, promoted by the BSE and Bank of India. CDSL would, however, require a certificate of commencement of business from sebi which would be issued only after a thorough inspection of CDSL's systems and fulfilment of the capital requirement criteria, BSE President J C Parekh said. CDSL would have broad based ownership structure and would be highly cost effective, he said adding that its launch would be a big leap ahead in the development of Indian capital markets.

WDM trades worth Rs 336.25 cr at NSE:

The wholesale debt market of the National Stock Exchange witnessed trades worth Rs 336.25 crore. The 11.55 per cent government loan maturing in 2001 was actively traded for Rs 135 crore at a weighted yield of 11.73 per cent. The 12.50 per cent govt stock maturing in 2004 was traded for Rs 35 crore at a weighted yield of 11.86 per cent. The certificate of deposit issued by ICICI, maturing on March 18, 1999 was traded for Rs 25 crore at a yield of 12.62 per cent. A repo trade worth Rs 10 crore was traded at a rate of 13.50 per cent for a repo term of eight days.

Demat value at Rs 3.94 cr from 2.04 lakh shares: A total of 2.04 lakh shares valued at Rs 3.94 crore were traded in the demat segments on the NSE and BSE, according to a press release issued by the National Electronic Settlement and Transfer. On the NSE, BPCL traded 58,000 shares valued at Rs.139.58 lakhs in 6 trades, SBI traded 10,470 shares valued at Rs.19.57 lakhs in 13 trades, HDFC traded 1,771 shares valued at Rs.48.26 lakhs in 2 trades, HPCL traded 16,200 shares valued at Rs.41.78 lakhs in 4 trades and ICICI traded 44,300 shares valued at 32.19 lakhs in 23 trades. On the BSE, SBI traded 41,850 shares valued at Rs.78.39 lakhs in 6 trades and ICICI traded 5,000 shares valued at Rs.3.62 lakh.

Tokyo closes lower on profit-taking: Japanese share prices closed 0.1 per cent lower on Thursday on profit-taking after two days of rallies, brokers said. But share prices were pulled off their lows from mid-afternoon by the yen's rally past 143 to the dollar, which blocked profit-taking fromaccelerating further, brokers said. The Nikkei-225 fell 14.93 points to end at 15,391.41. The Topix index of all issues on the first section closed down 2.04 points at 1,181.67. Activity remained subdued, with 352 million shares traded against 384.9 million shares the previous day.

HK govt defends intervention: Amid warnings that Asia's turmoil may undermine the world economy, the chief executive on Thursday defended government intervention to fight what he said were efforts by speculators to manipulate Hong Kong's markets. Speaking to the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, chief executive Tung Chee-Hwa said his territory faces further shrinkage of the economy and growth in unemployment in the near future. The main Hang Seng stock index plummeted early this month, and the government blamed speculators for betting on a further decline and driving prices still lower.

Fresh fall in nickel and tin prices on the metals market: Prices of nickel and tin declined on the the non-ferrous metals here today on weak london advices coupled with poor industrial demand, traders said. Nickel prices fell by Rs 3 per kilo to end at Rs 252 and tin declined by Rs 2 to close at Rs 380 per kilo.