Stock markets will be driven by further developments on the US-China tariff war front along with quarterly earnings announcements from IT majors Wipro and Infosys in a holiday-shortened week, analysts said. Global market trends and trading activity of foreign investors would also dictate market movement this week, experts noted.
The finance ministry has voiced the opinion that there was no need for the RBI to increase the key rates that could impact the banks lending rates.
Top executives on the board of the country's largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank, did not receive either performance bonus or stock options during the year ended March 2009, according to the bank's annual report.
Meanwhile, ICICI Bank chairman KV Kamath, however, said he expects interest rates to go up only towards of the end of this year.
The bank would take a call on the subject once the laws are amended to hike foreign direct investment in insurance sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent, ICICI Bank CEO and managing director Chanda Kochhar told PTI. This would help create value for the stake holders, she clarified while pointing out that ICICI Bank's share price had increased three times in the last six months to about Rs 750 a share.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain former ICICI bank managing director and CEO Chanda Kochhar's plea seeking retirement benefits from the bank. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti said, "Not a case for interference. We are not inclined to interfere with the high court order. "The special leave petition is dismissed." At the outset, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Kochhar said the high court had dismissed the petition without any discussion or finding.
Markets regulator Sebi has ordered the attachment of bank and demat accounts as well as mutual fund holdings of Videocon Group founder Venugopal Dhoot to recover dues totalling Rs 5.16 lakh. The latest decision has been taken after Dhoot failed to pay the fine imposed on him in March by Sebi for not making disclosures about his interest in Supreme Energy as well as for not disclosing that Quality Techno Advisors Pvt Ltd (QTAPL) and Credential Finance Ltd (CFL) were related parties with respect to certain transactions. In an attachment notice on Monday, Sebi said the pending dues of Rs 5.16 lakh include the initial fine of Rs 5 lakh, interest of Rs 15,000 and a recovery cost of Rs 1,000.
The ideal time to invest in sector funds, is during a downturn so that investors can capitalise on a turnaround in 1.5 to 2 years.
HPCL holds 50 per cent in Prize Petroleum while ICICI Bank has 35 per cent, ICICI Ventures 10 per cent and HDFC Bank 5 per cent.
Located in the banking hub of Singapore's central business district, the branch office is the start of ICICI's retail operations in the country under a 25-branch qualified Full Banking licence given by the Monetary Authority of Singapore in April, Kochhar said.
The bank, which has suffered reverses following a massive spike in dud assets and also the dismissal of its chief executive Chanda Kochhar over governance issues, however, hinted that the worse is behind.
With more players, products and rising consciousness about the need for insurance, the market has to grow. As for the team, the existing management team continues (at ICICI Prudential) to be there. The team has built a solid business, an excellent brand. The systems are in place, so it is a good stepping stone, says Vaidyanathan.
The arrest of ICICI Bank's former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a loan fraud case was "without application of mind and due regard to the law", amounting to an "abuse of power", the Bombay high court has said. A division bench of Justices Anuja Prabhudessai and N R Borkar had on February 6 held the Kochhars' arrest as illegal and confirmed a January 2023 interim order passed by another bench granting them bail. In the order made available on Monday, the court said the CBI has been unable to demonstrate the existence of circumstances or supportive material based on which the decision to arrest was taken.
Dr Reddys Laboratories announced on Tuesday that Kalpana Morparia has been appointed as an additional director on its board.
Former ICICI Bank veteran Shikha Sharma will take home a hefty pay packet as Axis Bank managing director and CEO that will be in excess of Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) a year, if one counts allowances and other perquisites.
The CBI later clarified that Rajiv Kochhar was only called for questioning and has not been apprehended yet.
The bench was hearing Kochhar's appeal against the March 5 order of the high court which had dismissed the plea against termination of her services as managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank while noting that the dispute arises from a contract of personal service.
ICICI Bank would review the interest rates on consumer loans after it hiked the home loan rates by 0.5 per cent on Thursday to protect margins.
In an interview with Business Standard's Shyamal Majumdar and Sidhartha, Kochhar says she is going to focus on the immediate challenge of correcting the cost structure of the country's second largest bank.
The managing director and CEO of India's second largest bank is already walking the talk by organising roadshows all over the world to showcase upcoming highway projects.
The focus on rural areas ties in with the bank's strategy to use its branch network to source most of its loans, rather than direct sales agents. Its direct agriculture advances amounted to Rs 17,329 crore at the end of March 2010.
The ICICI board, which consists 12 members, is divided on whether Kochhar should be on leave during the internal enquiry
The extent of the rate cut is being calibrated and would be announced soon. ICICI had earlier this month reduced home loan rates for new customers by up to 1.5 percentage point. There are indications that the fresh cut in interest rates would benefit both existing and new customers.
Banking stocks led by SBI, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, PNB, Kotak Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Federal Bank and Yes Bank fell as much as 2.77 per cent.
ICICI Bank, India's second largest bank financial services provider, plans to employ up to 40,000 people annually over the next three to five years to meet the expected demand from the nation's booming banking arena, reports the Financial Times.
"Clearly there is a slowdown in the number of deals. . . interest rates have gone up from eight per cent in the past to now 12 per cent and prices too have gone up but an asset bubble is not there," ICICI Bank Joint Managing Director Chanda Kochhar told PTI. She said that a correction was expected as the present slowdown was in number of deals and not so much in prices.
Maruti, Axis Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance also finished with gains. NSE Nifty rallied 203.65 points to 11,095.25.
"We think it (the Sensex) will be at 19,000 points by March, barring some really exceptional happening," the firm's managing director and chief executive officer, Madhabi Puri Buch, said.
The banking regulator is scheduled to come out with its monetary policy for FY 09 on April 29. "We will wait for the (RBI's) policy statement before taking any decision on our interest rates," ICICI Bank Managing Director & CEO K V Kamath told reporters on the sidelines of an Indian Merchants Chamber-organised press conference in Mumbai on Thursday. Interest rate decisions would also be influenced by prevailing market conditions, Kamath said.
South Indian Bank is likely to name a new managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) by May end, said the Thrissur-based lender on Wednesday. The bank's shares dipped some 14 per cent at one point after MD and CEO Murali Ramakrishnan said he will not apply for an extension when his tenure ends on September 30, citing personal reasons. The bank's board on Tuesday considered Ramakrishnan's request for not intending to continue on his post and appointed a search committee for his replacement.
Chanda Kochhar, managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Bank Ltd, the second biggest lender, expects loans to grow 16 per cent in the year to March and sees lending rates rising during the year.
Banking is all about leveraging, the ICICI boss said.