After the lending rate cuts by banks, India's top mortgage lender, HDFC, has cut its home loan rate by 20 basis points (bps) to 9.9 per cent with effect from Monday. With this, the gap between the rates offered by HDFC and State Bank of India (SBI) on home loans has widened.

Earlier HDFC gave home loans at 10.10 per cent, while SBI charged 10.15 per cent. The country's largest bank is now offering home loans at 9.95 per cent for women customers and 10 per cent for others.

The broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices even as telecom shares rallied despite industry regulator announcing ceiling on tariffs on roaming.

At 2:45PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 42 points at 28,884 and the 50-share Nifty slipped 13 points at 8,766.

Three leading banks of the country cut their lending rates on Tuesday, hours after Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan dismissed the argument of banks that their marginal cost of funds had not fallen despite two rate cuts by the central bank in the last four months as “nonsense”.

On a day when the RBI left its key policy rates unchanged and banks appeared reluctant to lower rates saying that their cost of funds had not fallen, it was some tough talking by Rajan which seemed to goad banks into action.

Leading private sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank have cut rates by up to 0.25% on high value fixed deposit on select maturities, a move that could be a precursor to lower lending rates.

The rates have been revised downwards for deposits over Rs 1 crore by 0.25% by ICICI Bank effective today, sources said.

Markets are trading at day’s high led by significant buying among index heavyweight HDFC and ITC.

By 10:43AM, the 30-share Sensex was higher by 301 points at 27,760 and the Nifty gained 81 points at 8,423.

Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) launched a school — The HDFC School — in Gurgaon.

It was inaugurated by Deepak Parekh, chairman, HDFC. The school has started, taking admissions from pre-nursery to grade III this year. It is in the process of setting up a five-acre school campus for its higher secondary wing.

HDFC Bank Managing Director Aditya Puri has been featured on the list of 30 best chief executive officers (CEOs), published by America's financial magazine Barron's.

"Of the 30 CEOs in our original feature, seven have kept their jobs and only two remain on our list - Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway and Michael O'Leary of Ryanair Holdings," Barron's said in its 11th edition of annual best CEOs, 2015.

HDFC Bank, India’s second largest private lender, on Tuesday launched Chillr, a mobile application that allows users to transfer money instantly to any contact on their phonebook who have the app.

The app has been developed by Kochi-based technology firm MobME and allows users to send money in three steps. Receivers don’t necessarily need to have accounts with HDFC Bank.

The CBI on Thursday night arrested a Mumbai-based chartered accountant and two government officials for allegedly selling confidential documents related to foreign investment policy to corporate groups after it carried out searches in offices of Finance and Commerce Ministries here and in Mumbai.

CBI’s action came after registering a case of criminal conspiracy, theft under IPC and misuse of official position under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Chartered Accountant Khemchand Gandhi, Under Secretary in Department of Disinvestment and Grievances Ashok Kumar Singh and Section Officer in the Department of Economic Affairs Lala Ram Sharma.

Benchmark share indices rebounded after three days of losses to open marginally higher tracking firm gains in their Asian peers with bank shares leading the gains.

At 9:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up227 points at 28,886 and the 50-share Nifty was up 66 points at 8,766. The Bank Nifty was up nearly 200 points at 19,235.

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