Halister News

--PAUL GORDON

(Bloomberg) -- Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution says President Jacob Zuma failed to fulfill constitutional obligations by not signing the Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment Bill, Johannesburg-based Business Day reports, citing affidavit filed at Constitutional Court.

• NOTE: Bill, known as FICA, targets money laundering
• NOTE: South African Banks Want Zuma to Pass Money Laundering law Link

(Bloomberg) -- No material difference between RBI’s OMO purchases and a govt buyback that should worry the market as both are injections of durable liquidity, Indranil Sen Gupta, India economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, writes in note

• Both generate excess demand in the govt bond market by lifting papers from market players
• Govt buys back bonds at shorter-end so it impacts the yield curve more than OMOs, but the effect is temporary
• To reach neutral money-market liquidity, RBI likely would have to do 2t rupees of OMOs in FY17 and 2.5t rupees in FY18; if govt buys back paper maturing in FY18 now, the RBI will have to OMO that much more in FY18 unless FX inflows pick up
• NOTE: Govt to buy back 150b rupees of bonds maturing in 2017 today; earlier bought back 184.6b rupees of bonds in October
• NOTE: RBI has added 1.1t rupees via OMOs since the start of the financial year in April to move market liquidity to neutral

Economic Release Details: {IDGDPY Index ECOD} --YUDITH HO

(Bloomberg) -- Avg 5 analysts’ est. surveyed by Bloomberg.

• 3Q reported pretax profit $843m vs $6.1b year earlier
• End-Sept. common equity tier 1 ratio 13.9%

(Bloomberg) -- http://tinyurl.com/zkfshg9

(Bloomberg) -- Here’s a roundup of Indian co. debt-rating changes.

• To get this story sent to your inbox real-time, run NI INRATINGS , click on Display & Edit, then Set Alert Delivery

DOWNGRADES

• Indo Rama Synthetics (India)
  • Long-term bank facilities cut to BB from BBB- at CARE
  • Cites stretched liquidity due to inventory losses and low realizations
• Cosmos International
  • Long-term rating cut to BB from BBB- at Crisil
  • Cites deterioration in company’s business risk profile due to a shift in its business model and management focus in FY17

UPGRADES

• ESAF Microfinance and Investments
  • Long-term bank facilities raised to A- from BBB+ at CARE
  • Cites equity infusion and significant growth in scale of operations in FY16
• Haldia Petrochemicals
  • Long-term bank facilities raised to A- from BBB at CARE
  • Cites improvement in financial performance and financial risk profile of the company
• Techno Strips and Tubes
  • Long-term rating raised to B+ from B at Crisil
  • Cites improvement in business and financial risk profile, particularly liquidity over the medium-term