Shares of mortgage lender Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) fell as much as 18% on Thursday, their biggest intraday fall since February, a day after two leading ratings agencies downgraded the company to their lowest on the lender missing payments on bonds due this week, Reuters reported. ICRA cut its rating on the company’s paper to D from A4, while Crisil downgraded to ‘CRISIL D’ from ‘CRISIL A4+’, implying that the company was in default or expected to be in default soon.

Two major Indian lenders slumped in the bond market after their credit ratings were cut to junk by Fitch Ratings, in the latest sign of concerns about the nation’s banks that are battling the world’s worst bad-loan ratio, Bloomberg News reported. Fitch lowered its long-term issuer default ratings on ICICI Bank Ltd. and Axis Bank Ltd. to BB+ from BBB- late on Monday. Certain dollar bonds from ICICI slumped the most in more than a year, while ones from Axis Bank fell the most in over six months on Tuesday.

Prepackaged insolvency resolution, allowing creditors and shareholders with a pre-negotiated corporate reorganisation plan to approach NCLT, may be taken forward by the government as a key route in the time to come, Business Standard reported. Sources said "this will aid the existing framework and cut costs and the time taken during the resolution process. This is part of a consultation process under the law panel of the IBC identifying issues impacting its efficacy and make recommendations.

India’s shadow banks are being forced to go overseas more for money as local lenders balk at extending funds, flagging strains in a key industry for an economy that’s already sputtering, Bloomberg News reported. The country’s non-banking financial companies have raised more than $2 billion of overseas bonds and loans in 2019, a record compared with the same period in previous years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The lifeline is welcome, even as it underscores a scramble after a string of defaults by peer IL&FS Group last year made investors wary.

Global mining conglomerate Vedanta Resources said on Friday it was seeking international arbitration over Zambia’s appointment of a provisional liquidator to run the company’s Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) business, Reuters reported. Vedanta said on Friday its executives were unable to visit its KCM operation and engage with local management, in a setback to efforts to ease tensions amid a legal battle with Africa’s second-biggest copper producer. The Zambian government has accused KCM of breaching its operating license. Legal proceedings have been adjourned until June 4.

Creditors of Jaypee Infratech Thursday decided to put on vote NBCC's bid to acquire the debt-laden realty firm even as the state-owned firm did not dilute certain conditions in its offer including relief from future tax liabilities, sources said, Yahoo! News reported. The voting under the insolvency process, run by Jaypee Infratech's Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) Anuj Jain, will start from Friday and continue till June 10, they added. As many as 13 banks and over 23,000 home buyers have voting rights in the committee of creditors (CoC). Buyers have nearly 60 per cent votes.

India probably lost its spot as the fastest growing major economy to China in the January-March quarter as a chill in domestic and global consumer demand hit manufacturers and service providers, Reuters reported. The slowing economy didn’t stop voters giving Prime Minister Narendra Modi a landslide victory in an election concluded earlier this month. But it puts an onus on him to deliver reforms that can truly unlock growth, which had waxed and waned during his first five years in office.

India’s largest lender is hoping to capitalize on the country’s shadow banking crisis by building its mortgage and small business loan book as the non-banks are forced to pull back, Bloomberg News reported. State Bank of India, which is slowly emerging from a period of massive provisioning on loans to large corporates like Essar Steel India Ltd., sees opportunities in taking business from the shadow banks without creating new asset quality problems, according to Chairman Rajnish Kumar.

India’s shadow banks are likely to see a further squeeze on their profit margins after the Reserve Bank of India signaled it will tighten liquidity requirements to bring them in line with the country’s more closely regulated commercial banks, Bloomberg News reported. Instead of providing a much-expected liquidity window to non-bank finance companies via the regular lenders, the central bank took a tougher stance on Friday by issuing draft guidelines requiring most NBFCs to set aside a liquidity buffer by investing in high-quality liquid assets, primarily sovereign bonds.

The Delhi bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has dismissed ICICI Bank's application seeking insolvency proceedings against Hyderabad Ring Road Projects Pvt Ltd on the ground of duplicacy as proceedings are already underway against Era Infra Engineering, of which the former firm is a special purpose vehicle (SPV), Business Standard reported. The two-judge bench headed by NCLT President M.M. Kumar dismissed the petition, saying "on account of duplicacy of the claims the petition cannot be entertained".