Indian shares continued their record-setting spree on Tuesday, hitting all-time highs for the third time in five sessions, as investors remained bullish about the prospects of a good monsoon. Monsoon rains are expected to arrive on the southern Kerala coast on May 30, two days ahead of the schedule, a source from the weather office said on Tuesday.

India looks likely to receive higher monsoon rainfall than previously forecast as concern over the El Nino weather condition has eased, an official from the weather office had told Reuters last week. Local shares also tracked gains in Asian peers, which hit two-year highs on the back of an overnight rise on Wall Street.

NEW DELHI: Shares of state-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Rural Electrification (REC) advanced over 1 per cent each, while drug-maker Divi's Laboratories dropped half-a-per cent after the US investment service provider MSCI on Monday added IOC and Rural Electrification to its Global Standard Index, while excluding Divi's Laboratories from its regional index.

Shares of IOC climbed 2.03 per cent to hit a high of Rs 450.65 on BSE. REC too rose 1.59 per cent to 222.45 in morning trade, before reversing gains. At 10.30 am, the scrip was trading 0.9 per cent lower at Rs 216.95.

The war for attracting customers for affordable housing loans intensified on Monday after ICICI Bank and HDFC Ltd. reduced their interest rates by up to 0.3 per cent for loans of up to Rs 30 lakh to promote affordable housing.

New home loans rates for up to Rs 30 lakh for women will be 8.35 per cent and for other others, 8.40 per cent, mortgage lender HDFC Ltd said in a statement.

The fear of abolition of the long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax benefit is back on Dalal Street as another 11,000 cases of penny stock trading abuse have come to light.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) sent a fresh list last week of entities that had allegedly misused capital gains provisions to evade Rs 34,000 crore in taxes to the income tax (I-T) department.

Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Tuesday strengthened against the US dollar, tracking the gains in Asian currencies markets.

Rupee closed at 64.06 a dollar, up 0.39% from its Friday’s close of 64.31. The rupee opened at 64.11 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 64.03 and 64.16, respectively. It closed to a 9 month closing high, a level seen 10 August 2016.

The Reserve Bank is expected to keep rates on hold this year as near-term inflation outlook is benign, but a cumulative 50 bps hike in 2018 is likely as growth accelerates, says a report. According to Japanese financial services major Nomura, the RBI is looking through the current low inflation prints and may keep policy rates unchanged in 2017. However, as growth and inflation pick up, a move towards tightening the policy bias with a cumulative 50 bps repo rate hike in 2018, starting next April, is expected.

Country's largest software services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will commence its Rs 16,000-crore mega buyback offer from May 18.

The buyback programme, which received shareholder approval last month, will open on May 18 and close on May 31, the company said in a regulatory filing.

New Delhi: ICICI Bank Ltd, India’s largest private sector bank, on Monday slashed interest rates by up to 30 basis points for borrowers availing home loans up to Rs30 lakh.

ICICI’s decision comes close on the heels of the State Bank of India and LIC Housing Finance reducing their home loan interest rates.

Mercedes-Benz E-Class range will now come with a smartphone-based digital key. Gemalto is providing its Trusted Services Hub (TSH) to support Daimler AG's new smartphone-based 'digital vehicle key'. With this new key, drivers will have freedom to lock or unlock their car using nothing more than an NFC smartphone. Gemalto's TSH enables seamless and secure over-the-air deployment of the digital keys to any type of phone that supports the solution.

The ‘ransomware’ cyberattack that has hit as many as 200,000 victims in over 150 countries should be treated by governments around the world as a “wake- up call”, IT giant Microsoft has said. The virus exploits a flaw in a version of Microsoft Windows first identified by US intelligence. The attacks exploited the computers because they were running outdated versions of Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

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