HDFC Property Fund, set up by Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd, India's biggest mortgage lender, plans to raise a $500 million fund to invest in residential real estate projects, said people directly involved in the process.

HDFC plans to raise part of the private equity fund from investors, including Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), investment firm Temasek Holdings and Oman's State General Reserve Fund, one of the people said.

India's equity mutual fund managers have kept their top-10 picks almost intact through 2014, barring three stocks. Despite being giants in their respective sectors, the three failed to make it to the most-invested stocks this year, said Value Research.

The three are telecom giant Bharti Airtel, fast-moving consumer goods major ITC and Housing Development Finance Corporation.

Private sector lender HDFC Bank has said a merger with parent Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) makes sense in the long term. There is no proposal on the table and regulatory clarity is required to make such a deal more beneficial.

A possible merger between HDFC Bank and the housing finance giant has been talked about for a long time. Such a transaction can create the country’s second largest financial sector institution, after State Bank of India.

Benchmark indices are trading lower, amid weakness in their Asian peers, dragged by losses in information technology and oil shares. Further, contraction in Index of Industrial Production for October to 4.2% also dampened sentiment.

At 9:30 AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 121 points at 27,241 and the 50-share Nifty was down 28 points at 8,196.

HDFC Securities today launched a unique electronic will writing service 'e-Will' in India. The company has launched the service in collaboration with its legal partner WillJini.

The service claims to assist individuals write their personal e-Will online without making any personal visits or phone calls. This do-it-yourself service is automatic and is not prepared or vetted by an advisor.

Markets extended losses after opening marginally lower, amid weak global cues, with auto and capital goods shares leading the decline.

By 9:35, the Sensex was lower by 220 points at 27,611 mark and the Nifty slipped by 64 points at 8,291 mark.

When most private sector banks have seen the share of low-cost current account and savings account (Casa) deposits grow in their deposits pool, HDFC Bank, the country’s second largest private sector lender, has witnessed a fall in the share of Casa in the same period.

At the end of March 2013, Casa ratio in total deposits was at 47.4 per cent, which in the next six months slipped to 45 per cent (September 2013). At the end of March 2014, the ratio declined marginally to 44.8 per cent. It dipped to 43.2 per cent in quarter ended September 2014.

Indian companies rarely welcome back former employees with open arms. HDFC Bank, however, thinks otherwise. The country's second largest private sector lender has introduced a new employee recruitment programme – Khoj – that aims to bring back former employees.

"We never had a policy that prevented us from re-employing former workers. But now we are putting a lot more emphasis on our re-hire policy. The bank's businesses are growing fast and we have a huge manpower requirement. We realised that a number of people, who have previously worked with us, want to join back. Hence, this programme has been introduced," Philip Mathew, chief people officer at HDFC Bank, told Business Standard.

Markets surged in opening trades to hit record highs with the Sensex topping the 28,800 mark but retreated later as traders turned cautious and booked profits at higher levels.

By 9:30, the Sensex was higher by 175 points at 28,618 whereas the Nifty gained by 88 points at 8,625. Sensex and Nifty have hit the fresh record high of 28,809 and 8,627, respectively.

HDFC Bank has become the first bank to rule out a joint venture partnership with any applicant for a payment bank.

We will not do a joint venture for a payment bank. We are a full bank ourselves and so we don’t need to form an alliance, said Aditya Puri, MD, HDFC Bank.

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