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HSBC Holdings PLC on Monday said profit grew 5 percent in the six months through June and announced its third share buyback in a year, indicating continued progress in the six-year turnaround plan of Europe's biggest bank. HSBC, like many global banks, spent the years up to the 2008 financial crisis expanding its empire with a string of acquisitions. Recent years have seen it cut jobs and sell assets worldwide to shrink the group back to profitability and maintain dividend payouts in an era of stricterc. The bank's Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver and Chairman Douglas Flint are both retiring, leaving a legacy of improving revenue and returning more capital to shareholders, having focused on trimming the bank's empire and shifting focus to Asia. The latest share buyback, of up to $2 billion, comes as HSBC uses excess capital to offset the dilutive effect of shares paid out as dividends. It completed a previously announced $1 billion buyback in April. "...

Financial News The central government has asked five state-owned banks to raise capital from the markets to meet their requirements for the fiscal year 2017-18. The Department of Financial Services has asked the relatively strong public sector banks (PSBs) — Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda (BoB), Indian Bank, Vijaya Bank, and Syndicate Bank — with a fairly good market capitalisation to not depend on the government’s recapitalisation plan. “ We have asked five strong banks that have consistently performed well, to raise funds on their own from the market. We are encouraging them to tap the market as their market capitalisation is fairly good,” said a government official. “ Three banks — Vijaya Bank, Syndicate Bank, and Indian Bank — are small but with good fundamentals and a good market price. We have encouraged them to tap the market,” the official said. The Budget has allocated Rs 10,000 crore for the recapitalisation of state-owned banks as part of Indradhanush, the seven-...