India News

Nifty holds 7,900 amid range bound trades

Markets have turned range bound in the morning trades amid absence of any fresh triggers as traders maintained a cautious stance ahead of the expiry of December F&O contracts.

At 11:45am, benchmark indices were showing a divergent trend with S&P BSE Sensex up 13 points at 26,048 and Nifty50 down 6 points at 7,918.

No subsidised LPG for taxpayers earning over Rs 10 lakh a year

Taxpayers with annual income more than Rs 10 lakh will not get subsidised cooking gas (LPG) from next month.

At present, all households are entitled to get 12 cylinders of 14.2-kg each at a subsidised rate of Rs 419.26, while the market price is Rs 608. The government had asked well-off people to voluntarily give up subsidised LPG, and buy cooking fuel at the market price.

Mark Zuckerberg dials Nasscom, start-up leaders over Free Basics

Facebook founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg lobbied on Monday with National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) and leading start-up founders, such as Snapdeal’s Kunal Bahl, and sought their support for its Free Basics programme in India.

Zuckerberg made a pitch that the Free Basics concept supported net neutrality and to ensure more people would get access to the Internet in his call with the Nasscom Internet Council, led by Sanjeev Bikchandani, its chairman and founder of job portal Naukri and Kunal Bahl, co-founder of Snapdeal.

Indian Oil pipeline pilferage racket busted in west Delhi

Large-scale pilferage of pipeline oil was busted in west Delhi’s Uttam Nagar area following a joint operation by Delhi Police and Indian Oil Corporation officials.

According to police, some people had leased a plot with some construction on it and were allegedly using it to store oil after having constructed an underground reservoir at the site.

Needed: more research based decisions from Sebi

This column has often rued the lack of data and research supporting some of Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi’s) decisions. A recent case in point is its decision to increase the minimum contract size in the equity derivatives segment from Rs.2 lakh to Rs.5 lakh.

The decision was communicated through a sudden circular, with no data or research provided to justify the move. A little over three years ago, Sebi had, in similar fashion, changed the criteria for selecting stocks that can be part of the derivatives segment. As a result, 51 stocks were excluded from the list.

Maruti to advance launch of new-gen Swift Dzire by a year

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd is planning to advance the introduction of its new-generation Swift Dzire sedan by almost a year as it seeks to protect its turf in the face of competition, said two people familiar with the company’s plans.

The company is also planning to launch a Dzire Tour model, aimed at taxi operators, with a petrol engine. Maruti currently has only the diesel version of the Dzire Tour running in the cab market. The petrol model can be retrofitted with a CNG kit to meet the new norms in Delhi.