But venture investors have been overshadowed by ever-ballooning private equity firms and believe it's inevitable that some of the capital sloshing around the buyout world will find its way to them. The figure is roughly three times the $129.6 billion that private equity firms shelled out last year to buy 721 companies.

India's second largest lender ICICI Bank is poised to make significant investments on technology and manpower in the next five years to serve four major booming businesses -- corporate, SMEs, wealth management and rural and agriculture.

PNB continued to lost ground and ended nearly 2.5 per cent lower. ABB, which gained more than 10 per cent in the last 2 trading sessions, slipped and was the worst performer among index stocks - closing more than 2.5 per cent lower. Among metals, SAIL lost well over 2 per cent and Hindalco closed nearly 2 per cent lower.

Mumbai, October 4, 2006 - Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will invest Rs 47,500 crore in government debt in the fiscal year through March 31, chairman T S Vijayan said in Mumbai. The state-owned insurer has bought debt securities worth Rs 17,670 crore so far this fiscal year, he said in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Amir Gal-Or, managing partner at Infinity, said the firm had last week put together its private-placement memorandum for Infinity III, its sixth fund. He said he expects the fund to close in 12 to 18 months. The remaining of the fund is invested in information technology, with a heavy concentration on the software and semiconductor arenas.

More than 80% of net capital inflows into India in FY06 were foreign investments, compared to 46% in FY05. The increase was primarily because of portfolio investments, which accounted for half of the net capital flows into the country in FY06, compared to 30% the previous year.

The Mumbai inter-bank forward offered rate (MIFOR) for six months closed at 6.56% as against 6.74% on Thursday, and the Mumbai rupee overnight offered rate (MITOR) based on the cash-spot dollar rupee premium was 5.72%, compared to Thursday?s closing levels of 5.91%.

New Delhi: Like peers in the banking sector, Union Bank of India on Friday launched a new deposit scheme to attract small investors by giving 8 per cent interest and 8.5 per cent to senior citizens. Dhingra said the funds will be utilised to give more loans to customers as credit growth is robust.

According to the India Investor Experience Survey - an e-mail survey of nearly 7,000 individuals conducted by Starcom Worldwide - a part of the Starcom MediaVest Group, a little more than a third of all people who invest in the stock market believe that they?ve been taken for a ride by their broker.