Shares of ITC hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 315, up 2.5% on the BSE in early morning trade, extending gains of the past 4 weeks after the company’s June quarter net profit beat the Street estimates.

The stock of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company was the largest gainer among the S&P BSE Sensex at 09:38 am. It outperformed the market by surging 17% in past one month, as compared to a 4% rise in the benchmark index.

State Bank of India (SBI) has put on sale a fresh batch of non-performing assets (NPAs) worth Rs 383 crore, days after it put on the block two accounts with a total outstanding of Rs 2,490 crore. Most of the accounts are being offered for sale on a full-cash basis. The latest set of seven NPAs put on sale includes four Kolkata-based accounts and one each from Bhubaneswar, Ludhiana and Mumbai. The largest of these accounts is Ludhiana-based Yogindra Worsted (Rs 68.33 crore), for which the reserve price has been set at Rs 28.13 crore.

Sebi today ordered Ricoh India and its directors to extend “necessary cooperation” to the auditor appointed for inspecting the books of accounts of the firm and confirmed its interim ruling in the matter, restraining several individuals from the markets “till further directions”. Through an interim order passed in February, the regulator had banned seven individuals, including Ricoh India’s former MD and CEO A T Rajan, from the securities market for alleged fraud pertaining to the distortions in the financial statements of the company.

GMR Infrastructure’s net loss on a consolidated basis widened by 72% year-on-year (y-o-y) to Rs 235.14 crore in the quarter ended June 30 on dwindling profits from its airports business and rising losses on the power segment.

Revenue in the quarter fell about 33% to Rs 1,876.2 crore from the same period last year. Profits from the company’s flagship airport segment fell 60% y-o-y to Rs 277 crore, notwithstanding the 14% traffic growth in the same period.

The stock of Kotak Mahindra Bank declined 3.62% on Thursday to hit a three-month low of Rs 1,244.90 on Thursday on the BSE after the lender said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had rejected its proposal to issue non-convertible preference shares to reduce promoter holding. During the day, it plunged 3.82% to Rs 1,242.25. On NSE, shares of the company slumped 3.71% to close at Rs 1,245.

MUMBAI: Maruti Suzuki and Mercedes-Benz, the nation’s largest mainstream and luxury carmakers, respectively, have decided to increase prices, citing input cost pressures. Maruti is set to increase prices by about Rs 6,100 per vehicle, while in the case of Mercedes-Benz, the increase will be up to 4%, which essentially means a hike of Rs 1.1-7.7 lakh depending on the models.

Telecom operators have announced free calls and data, extension in bill payment due dates and other relief measures for subscribers in flood-hit state of Kerala.

Reliance Jio has announced free services for seven days while BSNL is offering unlimited free calls within its network and data services along with 100 SMS per day for a week to customers.

Hundreds of people queued up outside the residence of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee this morning to pay their last respects to the departed leader.

Heavy security arrangements, including deployment of police, traffic and paramilitary personnel, were in place around the 6-A Krishna Menon Marg bungalow in the Lutyens Delhi.

India is being hit by a wave of steel from producers in Japan and South Korea, a government document showed, as mills there redirect supply after US President Donald Trump slapped an import duty on the alloy earlier this year.

During the first quarter of the fiscal year starting in April, India's steel imports from South Korea rose 31 per cent from a year earlier, while those from Japan climbed 30 percent,

RIP Atal Bihari Vajpayee: Former Prime Minister and BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee passed away on Thursday at Delhi’s AIIMS. The BJP stalwart breathed his last at around 5 PM. He was on life support system since Wednesday as his condition remained critical. The 93-year-old BJP leader, a diabetic, had one functional kidney. He had suffered a stroke in 2009 that weakened his cognitive abilities. Subsequently, he developed dementia.

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