Mumbai, March 1: Ajay Tyagi today began his innings as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) amid a clutch of challenges, ranging from developing the commodity markets to ensuring better corporate governance and handling alleged violations in access of servers at the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Tyagi is the ninth chairman of Sebi and takes over charge from U.K. Sinha, who demited office after a six-year tenure.

News reports are abuzz with speculation that Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) may acquire the government’s 51.1% stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL). While there is no official confirmation of this news yet, who will benefit the most if it plays out according to the reports?

Prima facie, it looks like the government will walk away with the booty in this case. The government will earn about $4-4.5 billion as a result of this acquisition. That should assist it in meeting its divestment target. Based on Tuesday’s market price, the deal works out to Rs27,786 crore (or $4.17 billion).

Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), which is planning a Rs16,000 crore share buyback, said on Wednesday that founder group of the company intended to participate in the proposed buyback.

TCS, is part of the salt-to-software Tata conglomerate, whose holding company is Tata Sons Ltd.

Sensex, on Thursday, opened at 29132.58, higher than yesterday's close at 28,984.49. It was up by over 148.09 points a few minutes into trading.

The Nifty, which had closed at 8,945.80 points climbed 41.90 points 8,987.70.

Tata Motors gained 4% to Rs 467 on the BSE after the company reported 2% increase in total passenger and commercial vehicle sales in February at 47,573 units compared to 46,674 in the same month last year. The company had recorded 1% year on year decline in total sales in the month January.

Domestic sales of Tata Motors' commercial and passenger vehicles were at 42,679 units in February as against 41,532 units in the same month last year, up 2.76 per cent, the company said in a BSE filing.

Banks including HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank today began charging a minimum amount of Rs 150 per transaction for cash deposits and withdrawals beyond four free transactions in a month.

The charges would apply to savings as well as salary accounts effective from today, leading private sector player HDFC Bank said in a circular.

State Bank of India will relocate 1,500-1,600 branches after April as part of a consolidation exercise.

Five associate banks — State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore — will merge with parent State Bank of India on April 1.

Coal India would again be generating cash for the central government, its principal shareholder, via the capital buyback guidelines issued last year.

In October last year, the monolith had extinguished 1.72 per cent of its shares after a buyback, estimated to have generated cash of Rs 2,500 crore for the Centre. The total cash given to the shareholders was Rs 3,650 crore. Now, to again raise money for its shareholders via interim dividend, Coal India is banking on its subsidiaries. “The buyback process is happening as per the Dipam (department of investment and public asset management) guidelines,” a Coal India executive told this newspaper.

In one of the biggest real estate deals, leading developer DLF has decided to sell 40 per cent of the stake in the company’s rental arm DCCDL for an estimated Rs 12,500 crore-Rs 13,000 crore to an affiliate of Singapore-based private equity firm GIC. While around 25 companies were in the fray when talks began to find a prospective buyer in April 2016, the race had eventually narrowed down between GIC and American private equity firm Blackstone.

Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra today reported 2.92 per cent decline in total sales at 42,714 units in February. The company had sold 44,002 units in the same month last year, M&M statement said. In the domestic market, sales were down 2.26 per cent at 40,414 units last month compared to 41,348 units in February 2016, it added. Exports were down 13.33 per cent at 2,300 units in February against 2,654 units in the same month last year.

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