Daily News Roundup - Nov 14 2008

SAIL may defer finalizing expansion plan of increasing its production capacity from 15mtpa to over 26mtpa (ET)
Tata Steel to not cut production (ET)
NTT DoCoMo buys 26% in Tata Teleservices for US$2.7bn. (ET)
NTT DoCoMo and Tata Sons are learnt to have decided to make the 20% open offer for the shareholders of TTML at Rs24.7 a share (ET)
Tata Motors plans to shut its Jamshedpur plant for the second time by the end of November and extend the closure of its Lucknow plant by another week. (BS)
Mr RatanTata has asked all the Tata Group companies to put on hold their acquisition and capital expenditure plans. (BL)
DoT issues notice to RCom on account of showing non-voice revenue as net revenue. (ET)
NTPC’s SPV for cement plants will be in place within two months (BS)
Reliance Petro is likely to commission only half of its refinery’s capacity at Jamnagar by December-end (ET)
IOC refining margins may remain negative in November (BL)
Bharti Airtel and Nortel announced an enhanced managed services agreement under which Nortel will continue to provide its contact centre technology (CCT) solution. (BL)
Bharti Wal-Mart, grocery and retail chain operator, will be going ahead with its plans to launch its cash and carry stores by June 2009. (BS)
OVL and its partner IRP Red Sea have made a second oil & gas discovery in Egypt (BS)
Unitech is looking for potential customers for selling or leasing a commercial building in New Delhi (DNA)
Telenor, Unitech JV will not participate in 3G spectrum auction, and launch 2G services next year. (BS)
BHEL plans to tie-up with L&T for new nuclear orders (BL)
GMR Infra backs out of its US$155mn acquisition of 50% stake in Homeland Mining & Energy in South Africa (BS)
Ispat Industries is learnt to have defaulted on a loan to UTI (ET)
Indian Hotels is likely to create another brand between the Taj luxury brand and the recently-launched Gateway Hotels to attract value tourists and expand the range of its offerings. (BS)
United Spirits has entered into ‘exclusive talks’ with Diageo, for a partnership and a possible minority stake sale out. (ET)
Kingfisher Airlines has defaulted dues to Nacil, which was providing ground handling facilities to the company. (ET)
Ambuja Cements may shift its upcoming project in the Barh district of Bihar for grinding capacity, citing law and order issues. (BS)
The government has asked Gail to pay 64.4% higher or Rs6.6bn as its subsidy payout in September quarter this year. (BS)
UCO Bank has cut it prime lending rate by 75bps at 13.75%. (BL)
Andhra Bank has cut it prime lending rate by 75bps at 13.25%. (BL)
US FDA has found fifteen manufacturing deficiencies at one of Lupin’s plants in Madhya Pradesh during an inspection (ET)
GVK Power and Infrastructure to divest its 49% stake in its SPV to Australia-based Macquire Group in a deal worth Rs4.65bn (DNA)
GSPC-Essar to invest US$8mn in Indonesian block (BS)
SKF India bags Euro303mn Suzlon contract (BL)
SKF India to put its Haridwar facility on hold (BS)
3i infotech sets up wholly owned subsidiary to focus on consumer services (ET)
Dish TV aims for 85% market share by 2011 (BS)
Moser Baer expects turnaround in optical media business soon (DNA)
Shasun Chemicals expects margins to decline on two of its key APIs in this fiscal (DNA)

Inflation falls to a near six-month low of 8.98% for the week ended November 1 (ET)
Oil prices fall to a 22-month low at US$55/barrel (BS)
India crude basket likely to fall below US$50/barell (BL)
Central Government approves coal linkages for 35,000 MW power projects that are scheduled to start production by the end of 11th plan (FE)
Global IT spend to grow by 2.6% in 2009, down from expected 5.8% in 2008, and with only 0.9% growth in the US, as per IDC (FE)
Industrial production grew 4.8% in September, below 7% in the same month last year but well above 1.4% in August. (BS)
Indian drug industry’s export earnings growth is expected to fall by 10 percentage points in 2008-09. (BS)
Domestic air traffic declined for the fourth consecutive month this October, confirming fears that traffic for the entire calendar year will dip as compared with last year. (BS)
Indian textile mills have started importing raw cotton from Pakistan. (BS)
No bidders for Rs11bn NHAI projects (FE)
Government asks cash rich PSUs to declare interim dividend. (ET)
Companies may soon be forced to reveal losses from foreign exchange fluctuations in their financial results (ET)
Government will soon review its policy of allowing state-owned companies to invest 30% of their surplus in equity linked public sector MFs (ET)
Occupancies in premium hotels fall 2% yoy in September while ARR are higher 21%, as per Crisil (ET)
Coal India receives twelve bids for its proposed JV to develop eighteen abandoned mines (DNA)
Country’s engineering exports to decline by 20-30% in Q4 FY09 (ET)