Daily News Roundup - Apr 5 2010

Maruti Suzuki raised prices from Rs1,000 on the A-Star to Rs9,000 on the SX4 with immediate effect. (BS)

SBI has extended its teaser home loan plan till April 30. (BL)

JSW Steel plans to expand the manufacturing capacity at its Vijayanagar plant in Karnataka from current 10mn tons to 16mn tons with an investment outlay of US$5-6bn over a period of three years. (FE)

Bajaj Auto reported a 85.12% jump in its motorcycle sales at 244,828 units in March. (BS)

JSW Steel plans to invest around Rs250bn in expanding the capacity of its Bellary plant in Karnataka by 6mn tons to 16mn tons in next 3 years. (BS)

Max New York Life gives 4% stake worth Rs4bn to Axis Bank for just under Rs800mn as part of a 10-year exclusive distribution agreement. (ET)

ONGC plans to sell gas from its C-Series field at US$5.5 per mBtu, a 30% premium over the rate at which RIL sells gas produced from its KG-D6 gas block. (BS)

NTPC has been drawing water from a canal in Chhattisgarh for the last 11 years without any agreement, reported the Comptroller and Auditor General. (BS)

CanvasM, a JV between Tech Mahindra and Motorola plans to launch 6,000 new indigenously developed applications for mobile phones. (BS)

BHEL will invest Rs6.9bn to set up a new piping plant at Thirumayam and expand its boiler division. (ET)

BHEL plans to invest Rs750mn in its Bangalore-based divisions to augment its manufacturing capacity from 15,000MW to 20,000MW by 2011-12. (BS)

Media report suggest that Reliance Industries may not renew a contract to import Iranian crude oil from this financial year. (FE)

M&M is in negotiations to buy a majority stake in Reva, or enter into a strategic alliance with the electric car maker for an investment of ~Rs1bn. (ET)

Reliance Capital is in talks with Swiss Re for a proposed foray into health insurance. (ET)

Promoters of Patni Computer are in discussions with international and local firms in a fresh attempt to sell their stakes. (ET)

Drug major AstraZeneca has been ordered to pay attorney’s fees by a US court to Dr Reddy’s Laboratories for bringing a "frivolous" and "baseless" patent infringement suit against the latter. (BS)

Foreign lenders to Wockhardt have succeeded in stalling the debt-ridden pharmaceutical company’s attempts to sell its nutrition business to Abbott Laboratories. (BS)

Ambuja Cements has produced 1.9mn tonnes in March 2010 as against 1.7mn tonnes in the same month last year. (FE)

Tata Power plans to offload its holdings worth nearly Rs17bn in the group’s telecom ventures at cost price as on March 31, 2009. (TOI)

Union Bank of India plans to raise retail term deposit rates by 25 to 50 basis points with effect from Monday. (BS)

Promoters of Bank of Rajasthan have sought more time to file objections to the capital markets regulator’s order charging them with violations of a number of rules. (BS)

ITC has entered the cigar manufacturing business marking its entry into the most sophisticated form of tobacco consumption. (BS)

NMDC raises base ore prices by 34-56%. (BS)

Reliance Infrastructure’s arm completes construction of the first 600MW unit of the Haryana government’s Rajiv Gandhi Khedar Thermal Power Plant in Hisar. (BS)

Welspun-Gujarat is close to buying a majority stake in a Saudi Arabia-based company with an annual manufacturing capacity of 0.3mn tonne of pipes, primarily for the oil and gas industry. (TOI)

Nalco achieves metal production of 4.31 lakh tons in 2009-10, against 3.61 lakh tons last year. (BS)

Nalco is mulling to undertake its third phase expansion envisaging an investment of Rs60bn. (BS)

The Maldives government has shortlisted GMR, consortia of Reliance Infrastructure and GVK Airport Developers to take over Male airport. (BS)

Norwegian Statoil and Brazil's Petrobras quit ONGC’s K-G basin gas block over government delays in approving their participation in the deepwater acreage. (BS)

SAIL, JSW and Essar increased prices of the commodity by up to Rs2,500 per ton. (ET)

Emami looking to buy Amrutanjan, says Emami Chairman. (TOI)

Jet Airways and Gulf Air enters into a code-share agreement which will come into effect from April 12. (ET)

International Finance Corporation, the private financing arm of the World Bank, is expected to pick up about 10% stake in Cholamandalam DBS Finance for Rs1bn. (BL)

Sanofi-Aventis allows Sun Pharma to sell cancer drug. (TOI)

Cinemax aims to touch at least 140 screens nationally and is targeting revenue of Rs2bn this year. (ET)

Dishman Pharma’s SEZ project to finally take off after a delay of over 4 years. (ET)

Marico plans to shut its health & wellness brand Kay0061 Life within a month. (FE)

Gitanjali to cut its presence in US jewellery market. (BS)

Torrent Power begins power distribution in Agra. (BS)

Reliance Life Sciences plans to launch its biosimilar drug to stimulate red blood cell production in Europe within a year. (ET)

Indage Vintners files an application with a division bench of the Bombay High Court challenging an order of a single judge that directed the company to wind up operations. (ET)

HeidelbergCement has earmarked Rs8bn for acquisition of mid-size companies in India as it plans to double annual capacity to 6 mt in the next two years. (ET)

Liberty Shoes plans to open 60 outlets, including 10 overseas stores, this fiscal. (BS)

Government may eventually give a financial lifeline to Air India by pumping more funds into the carrier rather than divesting a stake to a strategic investor. (BL)

The DIPP has virtually turned down the proposal of the Department of Pharmaceuticals to cap FDI in the pharma sector at 49% stating that apprehensions about the industry were misplaced. (ET)

The finance ministry proposes to tighten the FDI regime in the country. (BS)

Truck sales rose 99.3% in March to 33,619 units, compared with 16,868 units during the same month last year. (BS)

Bankers are likely to urge the RBI not to hike its key rates and mandatory cash requirement in its April policy. (ET)

Foreign exchange reserves dipped US$1.15bn during the week ended March 26 to touch US$277bn. (ET)

The Government is likely to consider extending export sops selectively after a detailed analysis following evidence that a strong recovery in the external sector was underway. Most of the sops given to exporters to tide over the global slowdown, including the ones announced earlier this week, are valid only till March 31, 2010. (ET)

More than a dozen foreign entities, which invest in shares of Indian companies using the Mauritius route, are planning to move the Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR) for clarity on the issue of tax liability in India. (ET)

Uttarakhand has demanded 1,000MW of free power from the Centre for shelving the 480MW Pala Maneri and 381MW Bhaironghati projects. (BS)

Primary food inflation was up 16.35% yoy for the week ended March 20, after hitting a four-month low of 16.22% in the preceding week. (BS)

Mutual fund industry's average assets under management fell 5% in March as banks and corporates withdrew from funds to feed their year-end liquidity needs. (BL)

Imports during February up 66% yoy to US$25bn. (BL)

PSU oil refiners' fuel loss may touch Rs900bn. (BL)

TRAI set to deliver recommendations that could permanently alter the structure, pricing and methodology for spectrum allocation; it could also pave way for M&As which, according to an April 2008 guideline, are not allowed till early 2011. (TOI)