Reuters India’s benchmark sovereign bonds are set to cap their best performance since the global financial crisis amid record debt purchases by banks, the biggest holders of government securities. Lenders gorged on debt this year as the central bank boosted cash availability in the financial system and deposits surged following the government’s recall of high-value currency notes. That, along …

  DUBAI / Reuters Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ) will open subscriptions for a 1.5 billion riyals ($412 million) rights issue on January 8, the Gulf state’s third-largest lender by assets said. The subscription period for shareholders and holders of subscription rights will run until 1 p.m. Doha time (1000 GMT) on Jan. 22, the bank said in a statement. …

  Bloomberg While merrily chirping, dancing and posing for selfies, a robot named Pepper looks like another expensive toy at a San Francisco mall. But don’t dismiss it as mere child’s play. Pepper embodies the ambitions of SoftBank Robotics, an Asian joint venture formed by a trio of major technology companies that’s aiming to put its personable robots in businesses …