Daily News Roundup - March 5 2009

S&P cuts ICICI Bank commercial paper rating to A-1 from A-1+. (ET)

Moody’s lowers Tata Steel debt rating to Ba2. (ET)

NTPC to borrow 70% of the total Rs177bn needed for expansion during 2009-10. (BL)

Government seeks information from Tata Communications on end use of funds. (ET)

Fertilizer units object to Reliance Industries KG gas sales draft. (FE)

IBM leads the race to acquire Satyam Computers. (BS)

PTC moves to the Supreme Court against CERC over power trading. (BS)

HPCL is in talks with Reliance Industries to run its petrol pumps in India. (BS)

IOC plans to sell bonds to bring down borrowings. (ET)

Essar Oil approves merger of its wholly owned subsidiary Essar Oil Vadinar with itself. (ET)

Australian regulator TGA is reviewing 62 drugs sold by Ranbaxy in the country. (ET)

Kalpataru Power Transmission bags order worth Rs3.7bn from Power Grid. (BL)

BEML enters into a partnership with Sumber Mitra Jaya of Indonesia to bid for contract mining business in India. (BL)

Bajaj Auto Finance to buyback NCDs with face value of Rs500 from open market. (BS)

Hexaware cuts basic pay by 50% for 350 employees on bench and by 2%-10% for higher level employees. (BL)

BMC to withdraw notice sent to Bombay Dyeing asking the company to stop development work at its mills. (ET)

Mcleod Russel acquires Vietnam based Phu Ben Tea company for US$2mn. (ET)

Kingfisher Airlines is in talks with Arik Air to lease aircrafts. (BL)





RBI cuts repo and reverse repo rates by 50bps each. (ET)

Government may allow Indian companies to enter into share-swap deals with foreign firms to facilitate merger and acquisition activity. (ET)

Indian exports and imports for the month of February fell by 13% and 18% respectively. (ET)

Government has allowed companies located within SEZs to claim service tax refunds even for services consumed outside the tax free export zone. (BS)

Finance ministry says no relaxation of FBT norms for exporters. (BS)

Cement dealers in western region have raised retail prices by Rs5 per 50kg bag. (BL)

A Nasscom team has said the Indian IT industry would have to remain watchful for the next three to four weeks. (FE)

29 FDI proposals worth Rs6bn cleared by the government. (FE)