Banking shares are in demand with the Bank Nifty surging 581 points to 20,542 in early morning deal on NSE after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut the repo rate by 25 bps to 7.5% today.

Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of India, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and State Bank of India are up between 2-3%.

Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank and ING Vysya Bank gained for the second straight session on the BSE, after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the proposed merger of ING Vysya Bank with the Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Kotak Mahindra Bank has rallied 3% to Rs 1,354, while ING Vysya Bank up nearly 2% at Rs 941 on BSE. Both these stocks had gained nearly 1% each on Monday.

The proposed Rs 15,000-crore merger deal between Kotak Mahindra Bank and ING Vysya Bank has got the Competition Commission of India (CCI)'s approval.

According to the fair trade regulator, the merger, which would create the country's fourth largest private sector lender, is “not likely to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India”.

Mumbai: Uday Kotak, executive vice chairman and managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd, expects the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to reduce rates by an additional 50 basis points by the end of 2015. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

Changing expectations about the timing of an increase in US interest rates could have an impact on the central bank’s ability to cut rates, Kotak said while speaking at the Kotak Institutional Equities investor conference, Millenium Makers of India, in Mumbai on Monday.

Kotak Mahindra Bank said on Tuesday that its consolidated profit after tax for the October-December 2014 quarter increased 21 per cent year-on-year to Rs 717 crore, on the back of growth in earnings of its banking, securities and investments businesses.

On a consolidated basis, the bank's advances grew 21 per cent to Rs 86,058 crore. Consolidated net interest margin was at 4.7 per cent during the quarter under review, down from 4.9 per cent in the year-ago period.

In order to tap tech and social network savvy consumers, Kotak Mahindra Bank on Monday announced the launch of Jifi Saver, a social savings bank account which can be seamlessly managed via Twitter and Facebook.

According to Shanti Ekambaram, president - consumer banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Jifi Saver will take care of their needs such as online shopping, on-the-go transactions, and financial planning, along with other benefits and functionalities of a regular savings bank account.

Kotak Mahindra Bank on Thursday announced the withdrawal, for the time being, of the nomination of Paul Parambi to the board of directors of Multi Commodity Exchange.

The merger between Kotak Mahindra Bank and ING Vysya Bank has received the approval of shareholders of both.

Shareholders of the Mumbai-based Kotak bank approved the merger proposal at an extraordinary general meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday. The exchange ratio has been fixed at 725 Kotak shares with 1, 000 ING Vysya shares.

Shareholders of Kotak Mahindra Bank today gave their approval to merge Bengaluru-based ING Vyaya Bank with itself.

At an extraordinary general meeting, shareholders of the Mumbai-based private bank approved the merger proposal. The exchange ratio has been fixed at 725 shares of Kotak with 1, 000 shares of ING Vysya.

A day after Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired ING Vysya Bank in an all-share deal, the former’s management agrees there are some challenges to be addressed, apart from the opportunities.

“There is an element of fat in the business and we will address it in an evolutionary manner…We are aware of the challenges and we want to make the business productive,” said Uday Kotak, executive vice-chairman and managing director of Kotak Mahindra, in an analyst conference call.

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