Total 13 public and private sector banks hit their respective 52-week lows on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) after banking share index, S&P BSE Bankex fell nearly 700 points.

At 09:59 AM, the S&P BSE Bankex, a gauge of public and private sector banks, dipped 669 points or 3.5% at 18,271 against 2.2% fall in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Markets slipped to day's lows in noon trades on Wednesday, amid profit taking in bank shares after weak economic data raised concerns over credit growth.

At 1:40PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 123 points at 25,574 and the 50-share Nifty was down 38 points at 7,745.

India’s largest lender, State Bank of India is slated to launch its mobile wallet, SBI Buddy, on Tuesday, an ET report has said.

With this, SBI will be entering into the fast-growing mobile wallet business, which already has players like HDFC’s PayZapp, ICICI Bank’s Pocket.

Axis Bank, the country’s third-largest private sector bank, today reported a 18.72% rise in net profit to Rs 1,978 crore in the April-June quarter as compared to Rs 1,666 crore in the same quarter of the previous financial year.

Gross NPA came in at 1.38% compared to 1.34% q-o-q. Net NPA was 0.48% compared to 0.44% q-o-q.

MUMBAI: Shaken by the online shopping frenzy, a string of high-street banks like SBI, Axis and Yes will launch mobile wallets to take on pre-paid issuers like Paytm and MobiKwik who lure customers with easy payment option and attractive retail offerings.

M-wallets — electronic saving accounts that can be used for shopping using mobile handsets — would help banks overcome the edge that pre-paid users have.

Axis Bank, the country’s third largest private sector lender, has cut its base rate by 10 basis points (bps) to 9.85 per cent. The new rates will be effective from June 30. Base rate is the benchmark rate to which all rates are linked.

In April, Axis Bank had cut the base rate by 20 bps from 10.15 per cent to 9.95 per cent. Prior to this, the lender had reduced its base rate by another 10 bps last October.

Axis Bank-country’s third largest private sector lender-has cut base rate by ten basis points to 9.85%. The new rates will be effective from June 30th. Base rate is the benchmark rate to which all rates are linked.

Earlier, in April, Axis Bank had cut base rate by 20 basis points from 10.15% to 9.95%. Prior to this, the lender had reduced its base rate by another ten basis points in October last year.

Banking stocks are gaining across the exchanges after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gave a nod to the banks to take control of debt-laden companies by existing debt into equity, if a debt restructuring fails to revive them within a timeframe.

In cases of restructuring of accounts, borrower companies are not able to come out of stress due to operational/ managerial inefficiencies despite substantial sacrifices made by the lending banks.

Two leading banks Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Axis Bank today slashed interest rate on fixed deposits by 0.25% on select maturities, a move which could be seen as precursor to a cut in lending rates.

The reduction will be effective from June 8, state-owned PNB said in a statement.

After close to doubling their headcount in the past few years, leading private sector lenders ICICI Bank and Axis Bank have reduced their employee counts.

At the end of March this year, the employee base of ICICI Bank, India’s largest private lender, was 67,857, against 72,226 a year earlier. During 2010-2014, the bank’s employee base more than doubled from 35,256 to 72,226.

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