The BSE Sensex turned flat paring initial gains, easing 16.36 points at 32,407.40 following mild bouts of profit-booking in capital goods, power, energy and financials sectors amid lower Asian trend.

Broader Nifty was trading below the 10,150-level.

Noting that the economy has been on a downslide since September 2016, SBI Research today said the slowdown is real and not technical and called for more public spending to arrest the slide. “We certainly believe that we are in a slowdown mode since September 2016 and a slowdown that has been prolonged to Q1 of this fiscal year is technically not short-term in nature or even transient,” SBI Research said in a report. The report said continuing slowdown has “raised the specter of whether the slowdown is temporary or not” but stopped short of answering the question.

The second quarter of 2017 has been a busy time for the German auto-maker Mercedes-Benz. The company launched the facelift of S-Class sedan globally and started the manufacturing of E-Class Cabriolet. At Auto Shanghai, Mercedes-Benz showcased its futuristic concept A sedan on which its future small products like the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, GLA, A-Class sedan will be based on. The company also reported an increase in revenue by 7% to euro 23.6 billion in the second quarter. Overall the car sales increased by 9% among which SUVs saw the major hike in global sales. The company has now already started planning for the 2018 calendar year and confirms the global debut of production version of A-Class sedan and will also be bringing in the long wheelbase version of the sedan.

Tata Motors stock advanced nearly 5% on Tuesday on news reports that Tata Sons bought 1.7% stake in the automaker through multiple block deals executed on both BSE and NSE today. Today about 4.44 crore shares of Tata Motors were exchanged in a series of block deals for an amount aggregating to Rs 1,871.79 crore on both BSE and NSE. The stock of the automaker rose as much as 4.93% to the day’s high of Rs 424.9 on NSE and was the top gainer on both the main exchanges.

Coal India on Monday said it has stepped up supplies to support thermal power units, which were facing coal crunch. In August, the country had faced energy crunch with growth in hydro, nuclear and others sources declining 12%, 36% and 7%, respectively. The demand for electricity from thermal power plants went up substantially, which prompted an additional 17% generation compared to August 2016. CIL supported the thermal power stations by increasing coal supplies by 20% to 34.4 million tonne compared to 28.6 million tonne during August 2016.

The board of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Monday made a number of changes in Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) regulations, to make these instruments attractive including allowing REITs and InvITs to raise capital by issuing debt securities. The market regulator also introduced the concept of strategic investor in REITs on similar lines of InvITs. SEBI also allowed single-asset REIT on similar lines of InvIT. Currently, a REIT requires two projects. Further REITs have been allowed to lend to underlying special purpose vehicle (SPV).

JP Morgan has raised the target for HDFC bank to Rs 1,975, from the previous target price of Rs 1,720; a near 15% increase. The shares have returned more than 54% since January, as against the BSE Sensex returns of 21.77% in the year.

The shares were trading flat at Rs 1,859.75 on Tuesday morning. The global asset management firm expects that HDFC bank’s earnings will grow at a steady pace, as there’s minimal asset quality risk for the bank.

The US has resumed fast processing of H-1B work visas in all categories subject to Congress-mandated limit, five months after it was suspended temporarily to handle the huge rush of applications for the work visas popular among Indian IT professionals.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has suggested manufacturing telecom equipment in the country to offset security concerns because of excessive reliance on foreign-made goods. It has issued a paper to identify policy measures, address issues of standardisation, and noted incentives that can be given to industry.

Titled “Promoting local telecom equipment manufacturing”, Trai’s paper claims there has been exponential growth in technology in the telecom sector. “While the mobile handset manufacturing industry has shown good progress in the past five years, the telecom equipment manufacturing industry has not been able to match the performance.”

The central government might decide to list the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on the stock exchanges, as a way to bypass the need for bank funding.

And, perhaps also use the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model for financing road construction, said Nitin Gadkari, the minister in charge. “It (NHAI IPO) is in the process now. I'm thinking, but I need approval from the finance ministry,” he said. The minister did not reveal details of a plan to list the NHAI, beyond saying he needed approval from the ministry for this. He complained banks were taking up to 12 months to approve financial closure for highway projects.

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