Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank Thursday launched a credit-linked subsidy scheme for home loans under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).

Under this scheme, individuals including women borrowers from the economically weaker section and low income group will be able to acquire and construct the first brick-and-mortar house of the family by paying significantly lower equated monthly installments (EMIs), ICICI Bank said in a statement.

ICICI Bank on Monday announced the 'iWork@home' initiative on the eve of International Women's Day, where women employees will now be allowed to work from home for a year, which can be extended.

The programme has a three-level security protocol which ensures that only the concerned employee is able to access the system. The second initiative is meant for women managers with young children up to the age of 3 years where the bank will foot the travel and stay cost of their children and the caregivers.

Five companies - ITC, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), Cipla, ICICI Bank and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) - from the 30 share Sensex hit their respective 52-week lows on the BSE in intra-day trade today.

At 01:55 PM, the S&P BSE Sensex was down nearly 1% or 207 points at 23,203, fallen nearly 600 points in past two trading sessions on continues selling of equities by foreign investors.

State Bank of India (SBI) ICICI Bank, Idea Cellular, Suzlon Energy, Unitech, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Crompton Greaves and United Spirits are among 44 stocks from the BSE500 index hitting their respective 52-week lows till 10:46 AM on the BSE.

The S&P BSE Sensex was down 252 points or 1% at 24,287. The index hit an intra-day low of 24,247 so far.

ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private sector lender, has reported net profit of only four per cent in the October-December quarter at Rs 3,018 crore on account of higher provisioning.

It is for the first time in the last 23 quarters that the lender has reported a net profit of only four per cent. Prior to this, the bank had been posting net profit of anywhere between 44-12 per cent.

Ruling out any competition to full-service banks from payments and small finance banks, top banker Chanda Kochhar has said they can actually complement the existing banking system and ICICI Bank will explore opportunities for mutually beneficial partnerships.

"Both categories of new banks have important roles to play as India has a very large untapped market.

As the WEF debates ways to master the fourth industrial revolution, top banker Chanda Kochhar on Thursday said financial sector has rapidly adopted the new technology and ICICI bank is targeting total transactions worth Rs 80,000 crore through mobile banking by the end of this financial year.

The WEF Annual Meeting this year has the theme 'Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution' and the business as well as government leaders from across the globe here are discussing benefits and risks posed by this phenomenon to the state of the world.

Malaysian budget airline AirAsia today said it will offer 20 per cent discount on base fares to private sector lender ICICI Bank's debit and credit card holders, under an exclusive tie-up, for a limited period.

The offer will be valid for travel on AirAsia Berhad, AirAsia India and Thai AirAsia flights, the airline said in a release.

ICICI Bank-country's largest private sector lender- has managed to cross home loan disbursal of Rs 1 lakh crore, it said in a release. The lender said that it is the first amongst the private banks to have crossed this mark.

Rajiv Sabharwal, Executive Director, ICICI Bank said that several steps taken by the bank such as taking home loans to smaller towns, making applications easier for the borrowers and offering doorstep services and disbursing loans quickly has helped them in taking the lead.

Shares of seven companies in the Nifty 50 index have touched their respective 52-week lows after the benchmark index fell more than 1% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in early morning trade as concerns about China and global economic slowdown persisted.Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Bank of Baroda (BOB), ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Punjab National Bank (PNB) and State Bank of India (SBI) from the Nifty 50 index hit 52-week lows on the NSE in intra-day trade. Most of these stocks were trading down in the range of 2%-3% at 09:23 a.m.

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