Daily News Roundup - Dec 15 2008

- Reliance Industries suspends production at KG Basin block after pipe burst.(ET)

- Government to move to Bombay high court to allow Reliance Industries third-party gas sales.(BS)

- Chevron to decide on acquiring 24% stake in Reliance Petroleum and holding on to the 5% it already has in the company by January.(ET)

- Reliance Communications diverting mobile revenues, says TRAI.(ET)

- HCL Technologies is considering more buyouts.(ET)

- Maruti Suzuki India to shut production for maintenance for ten days.(BL)

- NTPC, BHEL to start their engineering and power equipment business by enhancing authorized share capital to Rs7.5bn.(ET)

- ONGC, IOC sign pact on exploration, sale.(BS)

- S&P lowers credit rating of Tata Motors to BB-.(ET)

- Nagarjuna Construction to put on hold two proposed airport projects in Karnataka.(DNA)

- Biocon to increase it’s spending on R&D by about 20% to 30% every year.(BS)

- JSW Steel withdraws bid for US based United Coal.(ET)

- JSW Bengal Steel gets three coal reserves in West Bengal to source coal for its 10mn tonne steel plant project.(DNA)

- HDFC Bank cuts deposit rate by up to 100bps.(ET)

- SKF India, Trinity declares block closures at Pune plant. (BS)

- SRF suspends operations at Chennai plant.(BS)

- Future Group plans to take high-end cosmetic brand Faces to the Middle East in Africa.(ET)

- IOC and Tata Power are close to signing a JV deal to set up a 500MW power plant in Orissa.(TOI)

- TVS Motors cuts two-wheeler prices by up to Rs2,000.(ET)

- Nava Bharat Ventures approves the buyback of equity shares from the existing shareholders from the open market; price cap has been pegged at Rs170 a share.(BL)

- Government turns down Reliance Petroleum request for exporting LPG from its soon to be commissioned refinery at Jamnagar.(BL)

- Asian Paints shuts down its chemical plant in Gujarat.(ET)

- Tanla Solutions set to provide 3G products to MTNL which launched its 3G services recently.(BL)

- Standard Chartered Bank increases its stake in Standard Chartered-STCI Capital Markets (formerly UTI Securities) to 74.9%.(BL)

- DLF Assets is likely to get US$450mn from private equity firm Texas Pacific Group and JP Morgan Asset Management in January.(DNA)

- Reliance Infrastructure approaches Himachal Pradesh HC over the decision of the state government to allot the 960MW Jhangi-Thopan hydro-power project to Brakel Corporation.(BS)

- Unitech to finalise a buyer for its hotel property in Gurgaon in the next two weeks.(BS)

- Indian Hotels to re-open Taj Mahal Tower on December 21.(BL)

- Omaxe plans to restart its land-buying process from April to take advantage of the distress sales as it expects land prices to go down further.(DNA)

- GHCL looking to acquire an Italian home furnishing brand in the next three to five months.(ET)

- DoT to bring Reliance Communications book under CAG scanner.(ET)

- UTI AMC is in discussions to divest 26% to a strategic partner. (BS)

- ACC to decide on Shiva Cement warrant conversion this week. (ET)

- LIC may have picked up illiquid bonds of real estate firms worth Rs18bn from its unit LIC MF.(Mint)

- DLF cuts its current fiscal deliverable targets by about 33% following the deterioration in the housing and commercial property market.(DNA)

- Jet Airways in negotiations with foreign airlines to lease out six aircrafts.(ET)

- Bajaj Auto has increased its stake in Austrian sports bike maker KTM to 25% and is planning to go for more.(FE)

- Vishal Retail plans to raise capital by selling stake.(ET)

- Supreme Court asks Mundra SEZ to submit fresh request for forest land use.(Mint)

- Nalco, which has put its Rs150bn South Africa projects on hold, has done an encore with its Saudi Arabia plans too.(DNA)

- IIP fell 0.4% in October for the first time in fifteen years.(FE)

- Tax collection from Mumbai grew 20% to ~Rs674bn in the current financial year till December 11, 2008.(ET)

- India’s steel import jumped more than 70% in November yoy. (ET)

- India aims two fold rise in steel output by 2012.(ET)

- Drug price regulator NPPA has reduced prices of all scheduled drugs by 2.84%.(BS)

- No windfall tax proposed on oil refineries says government.(BL)

- Production of consumer durables dips by 3% in October.(BS)