Here is good news for home buyers planning to take a loan of above Rs 20 lakh.

India’s top mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC), on Friday, has slashed housing loan rates for new loans by 50 basis points (bps) for a limited period.

Under the scheme, home loan clients can now avail loans between Rs 20-30 lakh at an annual interest rate of 9.75%, down from 11.25% earlier.

Moreover, the customers looking for loans above Rs 30 lakh would have to pay an annual interest rate of 10.75%.

Maytas Properties, the realty division of Maytas Infra, has decided to shut down its four arms including hospitality, warehousing, affordable housing and retirement communities.

It is also learnt that the above decision has also resulted in the company issuing “pink slips” to about 80% of the 500 strong staff even as Maytas Properties has ceased most of its projects.

The benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended sharply positive on Friday (Jan 16) on the back of sustained buying action witnessed in index pivotals.

The uptrend was powered by oil & gas stocks followed by power, metal, PSU and bank stocks. Telecom stocks surged higher on sustained buying support. Capital goods stocks rallied.

Auto, IT and FMCG stocks got well after staying quiet till a little past mid afternoon. Pharmaceutical and consumer durables stocks zoomed during late trade, while realty stocks dropped.

Panasonic, announced their three sub-$200 cameras on Friday, which they avoided doing at last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Two of the cameras, which would provide a slim and compact build at a cheaper price than the company's high-end slim and compact FX-Series, have been included in the FS-series. As far as the third camera is concerned, it will be part of LS-series, which though would be heaviest of Panasonic's point-and-shoot line, but would be the cheapest. It has been learnt that the LS-series camera could be availed at a suggested retail price of just $119.95.

Three high school girls sent their photos through cell phones. Six high school students are facing pornography charges; informed the Police in Pennsylvania.

On Tuesday, it was reported by a well known newspaper that Greensburg police has caught three female Greensburg-Salem High School students, ages 14 and 15, who have been charged in Westmoreland County with manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography following when they supposedly took pictures of themselves -- two of the girls nude, the other semi-nude -- with their cell phones and sent them to other students.

It was recently informed by the graphics maker Nvidia Corp. that due to weakness in end-user demand, Q4 revenue will decline by up to 50 percent sequentially.

Nvidia reported, “Specifically, the massive shortfall was a result of further weakness in end-user demand and inventory reductions by Nvidia's channel partners in the global PC supply chain.”

Nvidia reported $897.7 million for the Q3 of fiscal 2009 compared to $1.12 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2008, a decrease of 20 percent.