MUMBAI: The equity markets started the week on a negative note extending their fall for the second consecutive day following fresh selling in financial and automobile stocks.

The Sensex slumped 368.84 points or 1.02 per cent to end the day at 35,656.70 while the Nifty closed the session at 10,661.55, down 119 points or 1.10 per cent.

NEW DELHI: Former defence minister and leader of the Samata Party George Fernandes, 88, passed away on Tuesday after being unwell for long. He was the defence minister of India during the Kargil war in 1999 and was part of the cabinet of the first non-Congress government which served the country for a full five-year term.

With consumer sentiment expected to remain subdued, analysts have trimmed earnings estimates of Maruti Suzuki for the next couple of years.

“We cut our MSIL earnings estimates by 5% over FY20-21 mainly driven by cut in our Ebitda margin forecast, factoring in higher discounts than earlier but maintaining our volume estimates,” analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities said.

ITC’s Q3FY19 revenue (grew 14.9% y-o-y), Ebitda (grew 10.8% y-o-y) and adjusted PAT (grew 13.8% y-o-y) came in line with estimates. Despite a 7-year high cig. volume growth of ~7.5% y-o-y, stock saw a negative reaction due to another single-digit cig Ebit growth (8.8% y-o-y) vs ~10-11% expectation. Price hikes in cigarette and tax increase in interim budget remain key monitorables. Maintain Buy on favourable risk-reward.

India is moving fast on adoption of 5G technology but an effective deployment will require huge investment in fiberisation, the telecom regulatory authority of India (Trai) chairman RS Sharma said.

"We have to figure out the use cases in our country and many players are working on it.

Piramal Enterprises, with Dutch partner APG Asset Management, has an exposure of Rs 225 crore to Essel Infraprojects, the infrastructure arm of Essel Group. Issues related to the debt burden of some Essel Group companies triggered a sharp fall in the share price of Zee and Dish TV.

Recently, two major oil PSUs (public sector undertakings) - Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) - announced their respective share buyback programmes as part of the government's divestment drive.

IOC plans to buyback 297.7 million shares at a price of Rs 149 apiece, amounting to Rs 44.35 billion. This apart, the company has also declared an interim dividend of 67.5 per cent i.e. Rs 6.75 per equity share of face value of Rs 10 each for the financial year 2018-19.

RSS leader Indresh Kumar likened Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, and actors Aamir Khan and Naseeruddin Shah to Rajpur king Jaichand and Najafi Nawab of Bengal Mir Jafar while referring to the trio as 'traitors.'

Speaking to media after an event here on Monday, Kumar opined that India doesn't need Muslim youth like Ajmal Kasab (lone terrorist caught alive after 26/11 attack), but rather like former president APJ Abdul Kalam.

After posting the best quarter in four years, Indian bonds are pitted against a familiar foe: likely record debt sales by the government to finance populist measures before national elections due by May.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration may announce Friday plans to borrow Rs 6.4 trillion ($90 billion) for the next fiscal year in its budget, according to the median estimate of 15 strategists in a Bloomberg News survey.

Ambati Rayudu was Monday suspended from bowling in international cricket by the ICC after the Indian player opted against getting his suspect action tested within the stipulated 14-day period.

Rayudu was reported for a suspect action during the first ODI against Australia on January 13.

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