Daily news Roundup - Jan 5 2010

Reliance Industries raised Rs26.7bn by selling a part of its treasury stock to LIC, to create a war chest to acquire the bankrupt chemicals giant LyondellBasell. (BS)

Larsen & Toubro has bagged Rs9.9bn order from the GNFC for setting up a 1,120mn tons per day ammonia equivalent natural gas-based synthesis gas generation plant at Bharuch, Gujarat. (BL)

Suzlon Energy bags second order of about Rs1.6bn from ITC Ltd, for setting up 21MW wind turbines in Maharashtra and 6MW in Karnataka. (BL)

Marico has entered the hair-styling market in Malaysia by acquiring Code 10, a Colgate-Palmolive owned brand, for an estimated Rs2.8bn. (BL)

Ranbaxy Laboratories has launched a new skincare medicine Lulifin (Luliconazole) through an exclusive in licencing agreement with Japan’s Summit Pharmaceuticals International. (ET)

Central Bank of India plans to sell non-performing assets (NPAs) of 41 industrial units with an outstanding of Rs4.1bn to clean up its balance sheet. (BS)

Dr Reddy's diabetic drug has showed encouraging results in the final lap of human clinical trials. (BS)

M&M enters heavy CV segment in partnership with Navistar of US. (BS)

Lanco Infratech has bagged three contracts aggregating Rs21.1bn from one of its subsidiaries, Lanco Kondapalli Power Private Limited, for various works. (BS)

Bharat Forge plans to invest Rs15bn to expand its non-automotive business. (BL)

Ashok Leyland to roll out 25 products in the next eighteen months from its newly launched truck platform and will shift all existing products to it by 2013. (FE)

Novartis AG’s plans to acquire a majority stake in the world’s largest eye-care company, Alcon, will give a boost to its Indian operations as it will get a new basket of products. (BS)

ACC opens 4th cement plant in Karnataka. (BS)

Zydus Cadila has received the approval of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct multi-centric clinical trials for the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine in the country. (BS)

Renault plans to launch zero emission electric vehicles (EVs) in India by the middle of this decade. (BS)

RBI to consider the introduction of credit default swaps. (ET)

Government may blacklist ethanol makers on failure to supply to OMCs.(BS)

The roll-out of the GST is certain to be delayed beyond its scheduled launch date of April 1 this year because of administrative and constitutional constraints. (ET)

India's exports rose at an annual rate of 18.2%yoy for the month of November to US$13.2bn. Imports dropped 2.6%yoy to US$22.8bn. (FE)

IRDA is set to link the amount of capital that companies need to earmark for their business with the economic cycle. (ET)