Benchmark indices continue to trade higher amid choppy trades supported by strong buying among software and financial shares.

At 14:45 PM, the Sensex was up 175 points at 27,820 and the Nifty is quoting at 8,417, up 51 points.

Continuing the trend of the 2014 fiscal, Vodafone India has ended the 2015 fiscal in the black. FY14 was the first year when it made net profits ever since starting operations independently in 2007. The company, an arm of UK's Vodafone Group, declined to share the net profit numbers.

Driven by growing consumer base and higher data usage, Vodafone India reported a 12.6 per cent increase in service revenue to Rs 42,352 crore. Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) increased 16.2 per cent to Rs 12,605 crore.

Shares of information technologies (IT) companies were trading firm on the bourses, gaining upto 4% each, on the back of positive corporate announcements and weakening rupee.

HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Persistent Systems and Cyient rose 3%-4% each, while Infosys, Wipro, Hexaware Technologies, Polaris Consulting & Services and MindTree gained 1%-2% each on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

KOLKATA: Nearly 15 months after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced handing over of 96 acres to NTPC for setting up a proposed 1,320 Mw power plant, the state government is yet to hand over land to the firm.

NTPC is also waiting for waiver of landholding ceiling to buy some 150 acres from villagers directly, with the result that the project has been delayed by at least five years already In February last year, Banerjee had announced handing over of the land to the power producer to speed up industrialisation in the state.

The benchmark BSE Sensex gained over 206 points and the NSE Nifty reclaimed the 8,400-mark in early trade today on across-the-board buying by funds and retail investors amid a mixed trend in other Asian markets.

Besides, value-buying by participants influenced market sentiment.

Local commerce mobile messaging app Lookup, has announced a Series A investment of $3 million from Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone, who has joined the team as an advisor. This hyper local startup had raised $382,000 till now before this investment.

The company claims to have over 3 million message exchanges every month. Its current downloads stand at over 200,000 and onboarding of more than 10,000 verified merchants.

Mumbai: Ajay Bijli-owned PVR Ltd is in the last lap of negotiations to acquire multiplex chain DT Cinemas, a subsidiary of real estate developer DLF Ltd, as it seeks to cement its position as the country’s largest cinema exhibitor.

“PVR and two other cinema chains were in negotiations and now PVR is leading the race to close the deal. The deal is in the final stages,” said one of two persons familiar with the development.

Mumbai: Seven years after Tata Motors Ltd delivered the first Nano, then billed as the world’s cheapest car with a Rs.1 lakh price tag, the jellybean-shaped car has come full circle in terms of price and positioning.

On Tuesday, Tata Motors took the wraps off the GenX Nano, priced between Rs.1.99 lakh and Rs.2.89 lakh, in yet another attempt to revive sales of a car it had launched in July 2009 as an affordable, entry-level vehicle, but which never quite took off.

New Delhi: The new service tax rate of 14% will come into effect from 1 June, the government on Tuesday said, in a move that will make eating out in restaurants, insurance and phone bills expensive, among many other things.

The service tax is currently levied at the rate 12.36% including education cess. Top official sources said that the new rate of 14% announced by finance minister Arun Jaitley in his budget for 2015-16 would come into effect from 1 June.

Bengaluru: Less than a year after taking the helm of India’s second-largest software services exporter, Infosys Ltd’s chief executive officer (CEO) Vishal Sikka is a lot surer about which way the company is headed.

“I’m vastly more confident and comfortable about the future,” Sikka, 47, said in an interview. “Most people do not really understand what it was like when I started. We needed to stabilize then. And now, we all are excited. People are excited because they know they are involved in something great.”

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