State-owned power giant NTPC on Monday reported a decline of 2.3 per cent in its stand-alone net profit at Rs 2,438.60 crore for quarter ended September due to higher borrowing and depreciation cost. The firm’s net profit was Rs 2,496.98 crore in the quarter ended on September 30, 2016, NTPC said on Monday.

According to the statement, the total income of the firm rose to Rs 19,960.35 crore in second quarter compared to Rs 19,588.56 crore a year ago.

After a disappointing June quarter, Coal India Ltd (CIL) reported a consolidated net profit of Rs369 crore for the quarter to September, a 40% decline from the year earlier. That’s way below what analysts were pencilling in. For instance, Kotak Institutional Equities and Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd were expecting the coal miner to report a net profit of Rs1,483 crore and Rs1,844 crore, respectively.

A key factor that drove the miss was that CIL made a provision of Rs2,300 crore towards wage settlement in its employee costs, while analysts were considering a lower number. What also adversely affected profitability was that other income dropped sharply by 56% year-on-year (y-o-y).

Indian stock market tumbled on Monday as caution flows among the investors following mixed corporate earnings for the second quarter of the financial year 2018. BSE Sensex ended lower by 0.84% or 281 points at 33,033.56 while NSE Nifty lost 0.94% or 96.8 points to settle at 10,224.95. A profit booking in the shares of heavyweight companies such as HDFC, ICICI Bank, L&T, Reliance Industries and ITC led to a heavy slump in the key indices. During the day, the benchmark Sensex dropped 314.58 points made a low of 32,999.98 whereas the broader Nifty lost as much as -105.5 points to mark the day’s low of 10,216.25.

In a major move, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided not to pursue a proposal for introduction of Islamic banking in the country.

Replying to an RTI query, the central bank said the decision was taken after considering "the wider and equal opportunities" available to all citizens to access banking and financial services.

Earthquake strikes near Iran Iraq border Earthquake strikes near Iran Iraq border At least 140 people were killed and 860 people were injured when a 7.3-magnitude earthquake shook the mountainous Iran-Iraq border triggering landslides that were hindering rescue efforts, officials said today.

Footage posted on Twitter showed panicked people fleeing a building in Sulaimaniyah, northern Iraq, as windows shattered at the moment the quake struck late yesterday, while images from the nearby town of Darbandikhan showed major walls and concrete structures had collapsed.

Axis Bank hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 565, up 4% on the BSE in early morning trade, after the private lender's board of directors on Friday agreed raising of Rs 11,625 crore through the issue of preferential equity shares and convertible warrants to Bain Capital, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and others. The bank made announcement on Friday after market hours.

Axis Bank said it proposes to raise equity and equity-linked capital of Rs 11,626 crore from a set of marquee investors including entities affiliated with Bain Capital Private Equity and the Bank’s promoter Life Insurance Corporation of India.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear on Monday itself a fresh plea seeking to curb rising pollution in Delhi and the national capital region (NCR).

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud considered the submission of lawyer R K Kapoor that rise in dust particles on roads, stubble burning in Delhi’s neighbouring states like Haryana and Punjab have led to an alarming rise in pollution levels in the NCR and its adjoining areas.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which was among companies barred from bidding for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) projects a fortnight back, sees an amicable solution to the row.

Meanwhile, it will continue to bid for projects that come along.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) is not yet clear about the valuation of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), the oil marketing company it expects to acquire by around March next year.

The country's largest driller is working independently to arrive at a fair price for the deal.

A grouping of stockbrokers has termed Sebi’s directive of compulsorily keeping records of telephonic communications with clients as “not practical” since that would be difficult in terms of identification and retrieval.

Voicing concerns over the directive, the Association of National Exchanges Members of India (ANMI), in a letter to Sebi, also said monitoring of communications with clients would be difficult as multiple modes, including mobile phones and WhatsApp messenger, are used for placing orders.

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