China central bank raises stake in India's HDFC

[BENGALURU] The People's Bank of China increased its stake in Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC) to 1.01 per cent from 0.8 per cent, the Indian lender said in a filing on Saturday.

China's central bank held about 17.5 million shares in HDFC, as of March-end, according to quarterly data filed to exchanges by India's biggest mortgage lender.

Shares of the Mumbai-based company rose as much as 3.5 per cent in early trade, but gave up gains to trade 2.4 per cent down by 0405 GMT. This compared with the Nifty 50 index that was trading down 1.7 per cent.

A selloff in broader markets over fears of the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic wiped out over 25 per cent off the Indian lender's stock value in March.

REUTERS