United Breweries Holdings said on Friday that ICICI Bank had unilaterally bought 1.96 million shares amounting to Rs 186 crore of its holding in United Breweries (UB), which it had pledged with the bank.

The firm said it had given non-disposal undertaking in favour of ICICI Bank with respect to the shares it owned in United Breweries. The undertaking was given only as a top-up to secure the company’s obligation to repurchase the loan provided by ICICI to Kingfisher Airlines, the firm said. ICICI had bought the shares on Wednesday.

ICICI Bank, the country's largest private sector lender, today picked up 1.95 million shares of United Breweries Limited for a little over Rs 186 crore through an open market transaction.

The shares were offloaded by United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd, a promoter of United Breweries.

Shares of State Bank of India (SBI), Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) are among five Sensex stocks to hit their respective 52-week lows on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) after the benchmark index dropped more than 1% today.

The NSE Nifty 50 index and the BSE Sensex have fallen more than 1% in early morning trade after China's regulators halted trading for the day following a sharp plunge in Chinese shares.

Banking shares are under pressure with most of the frontline banks trading in red after retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of November rose to 5.41%, the highest in at least a year, compared with 5% in October and 3.27% in November 2014.

At 10:15 AM, ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) Bank and IDBI Bank were trading lower more than 1% each, while Canara Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India (SBI), Syndicate Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce down 1% each.

Benchmark indices are trading in tight range with a negative bias ahead of the October industrial production data, which is scheduled to be released later today. The downside is on the back of selling pressure witnessed in capital goods, realty and banking shares.

At 11:30am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 100 points at 25,145 and the Nifty50 was down 34 points at 7,649.

Markets have turned range bound in noon trades led by gains in index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries and HDFC. However, profit taking in select pharma and auto shares capped upside gains.

At 1:50 pm, the 30-share Sensex was up 212 points at 25,250 and the 50-share Nifty was up about 60 points at 7,671.

In view of floods, ICICI Bank today said it has decided not to impose any penalty on its Chennai customers for delay in EMI payments for November.

Besides, the bank will also waive off charges for cheque bounce for the same period, ICICI Bank spokesperson said.

Markets continue to maintain weak trend tracking weak global cues along with selling pressure among rate-sensitive and FMCG sectors leading the fall.

Global markets across the global witnessed negative activity after the much awaited European Central Bank (ECB) stimulus failed to meet the street expectations.

Mumbai: Private sector lender ICICI Bank Ltd on Monday said that its board of directors has approved the sale of 6% stake in its life insurance joint venture ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.

Of this, 4% stake will be sold to PremjiInvest and its affiliates. The remaining 2% stake will go to Compassvale Investments Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-based investment company Temasek Holdings, the bank said in a notification to stock exchanges.

ICICI Bank announced the sale of a 6% stake in its life insurance arm at a valuation of Rs 32,500 crore. This comes on the back of a 9% stake sale in its general insurance arm valued at Rs 17,500 crore. Both sales combined will provide ICICI bank with a one-time gain of Rs 3,000 crore. While the valuation of the life insurance business at 2x F15 EV was in line with expectations, the general insurance valuation was higher.

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