Melbourne, Feb. 5 : Executives of the National Australia Bank have decided to cancel the second phase of a massive outsourcing project contracted to troubled IT services firm Satyam Computer Services.

Australian IT quoted NAB technology services general manager Craig Bright as saying that the bank would be exposed to too much risk if it continued with the second wave of its IT outsourcing (ITO) strategy, which was given the green light last November.

NAB announced the decision in separate briefings to its staff and Satyam employees at Melbourne's Telstra Dome this morning, sources close to the company said.

The termination of ITO Wave 2 is likely to see working visas revoked for the 100 Satyam staff.

Leading banks are likely to cut interest rates by 50-100 basis points in days to come, a move that can help to generate demand and propel economic growth in the country.

External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, holding Finance portfolio due to bypass surgery of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is meeting top executives of banks on Monday to discuss the matter. He can ask banks to cut lending rates on home, retail and auto loans to revive demand in the economic system. Banks may revise prime lending rates (PLR) or the benchmark interest rate by 50-100 basis points besides some concessions for SMEs and infrastructure firms.

New Delhi, Feb 2 :The State Bank of India, on Monday expressed that it is considering a further reduction in the lending rates by at least 25 basic points.

This was stated by SBI Chairman O P Bhatt, who is here to visit a meeting of state-owned bankers.

The State Bank of India, country''s top public sector lender had already reduced the benchmark PLR by 75 basic points to 12.25 percent on January 1.

The country's largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI) introduced a special offer for home loan segment in which the bank would provide loan at interest rate of 8 per cent, applicable up to April 30, 2009. It would be the lowest interest rate offered by any bank in India, applicable to all new as well as existing borrowers for one year.

New Delhi, Jan 31: State-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) reported hefty increases in its quarterly profit, helped by treasury gains and rising net interest incomes.

This was disclosed by K C Chakrabarty, Chairman and Managing Director of PNB at a press conference here on Friday.

The Bank registered an 85.8 percent increase in the net profit at 10.06 billion rupees for the quarter ended December 31, 2008, against 5.41 billion dollars for the same period, a year ago.

Stock market analysts have suggested investors to ‘sell’ ICICI Bank stock with a target of Rs 397 as the stock is experiencing heavy selling pressure at higher levels.

According to them, interested investors can sell the stock with a strict stop loss of Rs 418.
 
Today (Jan 30), the stock opened at Rs 401, as against its last closure at Rs 408.40 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Thursday (Jan 29). Current EPS & P/E ratio stood at 37.03 and 10.82 respectively. The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 1300 and a low of Rs 282.15 on BSE.