HDFC Bank hikes PLR by 100 bps to 14 per cent
Mumbai: Private sector lender HDFC Bank has hiked its Prime Lending Rate (PLR) by 100 bps from 13 to 14 per cent. The bank said one of the main reasons for hiking the PLR with effect from last Saturday was the cost of funds going up for the bank in line with the trend in the banking industry.

With the Reserve Bank of India taking recourse to monetary tightening to combat inflation, cost of funds has increased across the banking industry.

Earlier, private sector lenders ICICI Bank and Yes Bank had also hiked their PLRs.
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Forex reserves cross $180 billion
Mumbai: Foreign exchange reserves zoomed past $995 million to $180.047 billion for the week ended February 2, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) yesterday.

Foreign currency assets increased $981 million to $172.965 billion. While gold reserves moved up $12 million to $6.529 billion, SDRs were unchanged at $10 million.

The Reserve Tranche Position with the IMF was up $2 million to $543 million.
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Indian Bank fixes IPO price at Rs91 per share
Mumbai: Indian Bank has fixed the price of its shares at Rs91 each at the upper end of its price band, announced by the bank.

A bank release said its IPO of 8.59 crore shares has been oversubscribed. The shares will be listed on the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange soon.
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Banks see loans slowing down
Mumbai: Banks that saw loans grow by more than Rs80,000 crore in December have seen loans slowing down in January. In January loans grew by only Rs14,289 crore.

According to the latest Reserve Bank of India (RBI) figures released in its weekly statistical supplement (WSS), loans extended by commercial banks rose Rs14,289 crore in January to Rs17,80,632 crore as against a growth of Rs82,614 crore in December. While food credit dipped Rs90 crore, non-food credit rise Rs14,379 crore during the month.

One reason for the slowdown could be the common practice among banks to indulge in window-dressing and bloat-business figures during the quarter-end period for banks. As a result, the subsequent month figures tend to drop. However, this time round, the growth has dipped sharply.

However, some banks have also seen a slowdown in retail loans. In the current financial year, banks have hiked lending rates more than once. The regulator has also hiked the risk weight assigned to home loans, requiring them to set aside more capital. This has made home loan lending unattractive for banks.

However, despite the slowdown in credit offtake, the annual (YoY) growth in credit is still almost close to 30 per cent as against the projected growth of around 25 per cent.
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