Daily News Roundup - May 5 2009

OVL, the overseas arm of ONGC, is likely to invest US$1.5bn in an oil block in Iraq. (FE)

Tata Steel hikes prices of long steel products by Rs300-500ton. (FE)

NALCO fears ~33% drop in its alumina output after 16 days, due to shortage of bauxite. (BS)

ACC’s shipments rise to 1.8mn tons in April, higher by 4% yoy. (ET)

Aditya Birla Group, which owns Grasim and UltraTech, cement dispatches grew by 17% yoy to 3.2mn tons from 2.7mn tons. (ET)

Ambuja Cements dispatches for April were higher to 1.6mn tons against 1.5mn tons last year. (FE)

Tata Motors Nano bookings have crossed 0.2mn garnering nearly Rs25bn. (ET)

Tata Motors passenger vehicles volumes dipped by 9.6% in April 09 to 13,410 units against 14,843 units last year. (BS)

M&M reported a 35% jump in tractor sales for April 09 to 11,640 units. (BS)

Indo-Austrian motorcycle alliance of Bajaj Auto and KTM will roll out its first products into the Indian market. (BS)

Ratnagiri Gas and Power Ltd board is expected to sign gas deal with Reliance Industries during the week. (ET)

Investors reject the US$500mn FCCB restructuring proposal of Suzlon. (ET)

DLF exited from the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority’s 9,300 acre Bidadi Satellite Township Project. (BL)

DLF may sell 50% stake in new Saket hotel for Rs750mn. (ET)

Purvankara Projects my consider restructuring part of its Rs2.8bn debt which is due for payment over the next 12 months. (Mint)

GMR Infra board will meet on 9th May 09 to discuss the raising of funds through the issue of various securities. (Mint)

Shoppers Stop plans to open 12 outlets with a total area of 0.65mn sq ft in the next 3 years to take advantage of the fall in mall rentals. (BS)

Ranbaxy’s clinical trials for its malaria drug in final trial stage. (BS)

Canara Bank launched ‘SME Sulabh’ a new business model for increasing credit flow to the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises sector. (BL)

Essar Oil's Jamnagar refinery resumed operations on Sunday after its shutdown, which began on April 16. (BL)

Maruti Suzuki expects its upcoming model Ritz, based on the Swift platform, to sell about 9,000 units a month. (BL)

Maruti Suzuki today indicated that it plans to launch a 660 cc car in the next couple of years. (BS)

Maruti Suzuki plans to increase its production capacity by 0.2mn over the next 2 years to cater to the buoyant small car market. (ET)

United Spirits stake sale talks with Diageo make no headway. (BL)

IDFC Project Equity set to invest US$110mn in two projects. (BL)

PMO rejects the communication ministry’s decision to cut the licence fee for telecom operators. (ET)

Government will allocated the gas from KG-D6 fields to steel plants if the identified buyers are unable to use the fuel. (ET)

Government has proposed a 20% safeguard duty on the import of coated paper and paperboard. (ET)

Delhi may impose a special cess on petrol and diesel to raise money for expanding the Metro rail network ahead of next year’s commonwealth games. (ET)

India plans to impose anti dumping duty on the imports of phosphoric acid. (FE)

Mumbai’s second airport at Navi Mumbai received the clearance from the Bombay High Court earlier last week. (BS)