Daily News Roundup - Dec 3 2010

ONGC will bring to production various clusters of its marginal fields on the western offshore in the next two years. (BS)

Australia’s leading mining contractor, Leighton Holdings, won a 22-year contract from India’s NTPC for US$5.5bn. (BS)



Reliance Power is planning to double the capacity of its Rosa power project at Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh from the current plan of 1,200 MW to 2,400 MW, with an additional investment of Rs60bn. (BS)

Stung by dwindling sales of the Nano, Tata Motors has embarked on a nationwide campaign to promote and market it. (BS)

Steel majors ArcelorMittal, Posco, Tata Metaliks, JSW Steel, Bhushan Steel, NMDC and KIOCL among others are likely to be allotted captive iron ore mines in the iron ore-rich Bellary district of Karnataka. (BS)

Powergrid has received two bids from telecom tower companies seeking the right to lease the utility major tower slots to telecom operators. (ET)

Godrej Consumer Products has acquired liquid detergent brand Genteel and Swastik soap. (ET)

NTPC has signed a loan pact with Bank of Tokyo-Mistubishi UFJ Ltd for US$300mn to part-finance its capex on its ongoing and new power projects and for the renovation of existing stations. (BL)

TCS announced the launch of its BPO centre in the Philippines with a capacity of 400 people; to be eventually scaled to 1,000 employees. (BS)

L&T has bagged two orders totalling Rs4.2bn from Hindalco and Sepco-I. (BL)

Tata Motors' sale of buses and trucks grew 19% yoy to 35,079 units in November. (BL)

M&M reported highest ever monthly tractor sales in November at 16,975 units registering a 46% yoy growth. (BL)

HCL Tech bagged a contract from OP Pohjola, the largest financial services group in Finland. (BL)

Dabur India launched a daily health supplement under the Nutrigo brand to announce its entry into the OTC healthcare market. (BL)

Jyothy Laboratories, the multi-brand maker of various consumer products, is targeting two regional acquisitions this year for a total consideration of Rs3bn. (BS)

Fortis Healthcare has taken over the operation of Raigarh-based OP Jindal Hospital. (ET)

Apollo Hospital to hive-off its pharmacy retail chain. (ET)

Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines owe over Rs10.5bn to the oil marketing companies. (ET)

Murli Industries to hive off cement plant. (ET)

Tulip Telecom and Hutchison Global Communications Ltd have signed a network interconnection agreement. (BL)

The food inflation rate fell to single digit after 18 months to 8.6% for the week ended November 20, primarily due to falling prices of essential commodities like rice, wheat and cereals on increased supplies. (BS)

RBI will collaborate with SEBI to draft norms for banks investment in mutual fund. (ET)

Government has increased prices of natural gas in non-priority sectors such as steel and petrochemicals by 10% wef December 1. (BS)

With the economy maintaining high growth momentum in consecutive quarters, the government may soon come up with a higher growth forecast for 2010-11. (BS)

Government asks banks to submit MFI loan, NPA data. (BS)

Cement sales in November declined mom due to unseasonal rains in a few states and festival season. (BL)

Domestic airlines have proposed a massive hike in air fares, DGCA may not agree. (ET)