Daily News Roundup - Jan 4 2010

Maruti Suzuki posted a 50% yoy growth for December, clocking sales of 84,804 units. (BL)

Tata Motors reported over 100% yoy growth in its sales during the month of December 2009. (DNA)

Hero Honda clocks 0.38mn units in December and posted a 74% growth over the same month last year. (BL)

Bajaj Auto sold 220,429 two-wheelers in December 2009, registering 85% growth in sales over the same month last year. (BS)

TVS Motors' sales grew 34% in December to 0.12mn. (BL)

NTPC is set to launch its FPO in the first week of February; it aims to raise Rs80-110bn through the process. (DNA)

Shell, BP evinces interest in picking up Petrobas’ 15% stake in ONGC’s gas find off Andhra coast. (TOI)

ONGC has lost an oilfield in Algeria to a consortium led by Chinese oil firm. (TOI)

SAIL increased the prices of flat and long products by Rs1,500, while Tata Steel hiked the rates of flat products by up to Rs1,500. (BS)

Bhushan Steel hiked the prices of its long and flat products by up to Rs2,000 a ton. (BS)

SAIL reported a 32% growth in sales at 1.3mn tons in December 2009. (BS)

GVK Power and Infrastructure will take up a 400MW expansion project at Jegurupadu and an 800MW scheme at Gauthami, both in Andhra Pradesh. (BL)

MTNL has asked government to shoulder pension burden in a bid to cut down on wage costs. (TOI)

Air India is set to launch two separate subsidiaries - for maintenance, repair & overhaul and ground handling services - this year. (DNA)

Bharti Airtel may get Warid Telecom for a bargain basement price of Rs4.5mn. (ET)

Reliance Retail plans to open 45 stores of its books and music retailing business, Reliance TimeOut, across India over the next three to five years. (ET)

ONGC has doubled crude oil production at Imperial Energy, the Russia-focused oil firm it acquired recently, to 16,000bpd and is set to turn the company around next year. (ET)

IOC, BPCL and HPCL cut the prices of jet fuel by 1.6% across airports. (ET)

Sun Pharma has succeeded in preventing Taro’s founder family from appointing independent directors of their choice on the Taro Board. (BS)

L&T bags orders worth Rs5.8bn from Powergen Infrastructure and Bangalore Water and Sewerage Board. (BS)

ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of ONGC, raises Rs3.5bn via bonds. (BS)

Godrej Consumer is close to acquiring Megasari, Indonesia in a deal estimated to be worth Rs12-14bn. (ET)

TVS Motors to showcase hybrid range of vehicles at the Auto Expo slated to be held in New Delhi next week. (ET)

Maharashtra Government offers 2,000 acres to Videocon Group for the development of a multi-purpose SEZ in Pune. (BS)

REC is keen to pick up 26% stake in coal mines and merchant power plants. (ET)

Shree Cement has bought about 90 acres of land in various states such as Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and also its home state of Rajasthan to set up new plants. (ET)

Zydus Cadila has acquired the remaining 30% stake in its South Africa-based subsidiary Simayla for an undisclosed amount. (ET)

Orchid Chemicals has bought-back FCCBs of aggregate face value of US$19.8mn. (BS)

Sical Logistics has bagged an Rs1.6bn contract from Hindustan Copper for supplying port, train and road logistics products. (ET)

Deep Industries’ contract with GACL for the compression of natural gas and delivery of compressed natural gas at specified outlets has been extended for a period of three years. (BS)

Ashok Leyland unveils a new platform ‘U Truck’, which would address new emission norms, offer product flexibility and customization. (DNA)

IDFC’s project equity division is weighing investment in a greenfield power plant being set up by Monnet Power and Energy. (DNA)

Foreign exchange reserves fall by US$144mn to US$283bn, for the week ended December 25. (BL)

Food inflation for the week ended December 19 again surges to 19.83%. (ET)

CPI for industrial workers rose to 13.5% in November 2009 as compared to 11.5% in October. (BS)

Fiscal deficit rose by 73% to Rs3.1tn in the first eight months of the fiscal against Rs1.77tn a year ago. (BS)

India’s current account deficit remained flat at US$12.6bn for the quarter ended September 2009. (ET)

Government to raise Rs970bn in the last quarter of the fiscal through treasury bills. (ET)

Oil marketing companies cut ATF prices by 1.6% across airports, the third straight reduction in the past one-and-half months. (ET)

Domestic IT and IT-enabled services market is expected to grow at 15% in 2010, as per IDC. (BS)

Farm sector growth in October-December 2009 quarter may be negative, according to the finance minister. (BS)

Government’s port capacity expansion may miss 2012 target of 1bn tons. (BS)

Provisional figures released by the Directorate-General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics for November show exports at US$13.2bn, an increase of 18.2% after a long spell of negative growth. (BL)

RBI’s deputy governor says credit growth is expected to touch 15-20%. (BL)

Insurance regulator IRDA would come with IPO guidelines for the sector within a fortnight to allow companies to raise funds from capital market. (TOI)

NHAI mulls changes in toll fee norms. (FE)

FMCG firms may hike soap prices or cut pack size. (FE)

In an attempt to ensure that big electricity projects achieve financial closure, the Union power ministry plans to cap the number of ultra mega power projects that can be awarded to a single developer. (Mint)

Union government may update the current inflation series with an expanded basket of commodities and a new base year in April. (Mint)

DoT says mobile number portability would be introduced across the country from March 31, 2010. (ET)