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 Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC Ltd) had made a net profit of Rs 2,607.05 crore on a standalone basis during corresponding January-March period of 2015-16.

At 2:53 pm; the stock of private sector lender was trading 1% higher at Rs 1,564, extending its 8% surge in past seven trading sessions after reported a healthy set of numbers for the quarter ended March 31, 2017 (Q4FY17) recording strong growth in net interest income (NII) and improvement in operating parameters. The S&P BSE Sensex was up 2.4% in past eight trading sessions since April 17.

The second largest private lender's senior management hinted this trend of falling staff strength may continue as greater efficiencies set in.

At Rs 3,990 crore, the bank’s net profit grew 18.3% on higher interest income and income from fees. In the same period last year, HDFC Bank had posted a net profit of Rs 3,374.22 crore.

According to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), UPI recorded a total of 6.2 million transactions aggregating.

Data from Bloomberg showed that HDFC Bank, India's most-valued and most profitable bank, was the only stock that featured in the top five most preferred stocks according to analysts’ buy ratings, a year ago and even now. Others in the list were ITC Ltd, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd and Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T).

"Return on equity for the sector will struggle and there will be very material divergence in growth of book value per share, which will continue to create divergent stock price performance," the report highlights. What’s interesting is that the investment downgrade undertaken by the brokerage on India’s three largest private banks follows a different rationale in each case.

For this, the bank has tied up with National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL). Shares dematerialised by NSDL and executed through HDFC Bank demat account could be used for pledging. This is a first-of-its-kind initiative in India and probably the first in the world as well. HDFC Bank and NSDL had consulted the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) before developing the product.

SBI, according to a source, has also been asked to reconsider charges it proposes to levy on cash transactions and ATM withdrawals over specified limits.