Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the ‘Make in India’ initiative has become a movement in Japan and the island nation has created a fund of about USD 12 billion for it.

“Today, there is a ‘Make In India’ movement in Japan. I have been told that USD 11-12 billion fund has been earmarked for it. This clearly indicates how both the countries can move forward,” he said while addressing the India-Japan Business Leaders Forum here.

Markets are likely to extend gains on Friday tracking firm Asian cues and overnight gains on Wall Street.

At 8:30am, The early indicator, the SGX Nifty is down 12 points at 7,687.

Markets have turned range bound in noon trades led by gains in index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries and HDFC. However, profit taking in select pharma and auto shares capped upside gains.

At 1:50 pm, the 30-share Sensex was up 212 points at 25,250 and the 50-share Nifty was up about 60 points at 7,671.

The country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki has reported an increase of more than 10% in domestic sales during November on the back of higher demand due to Diwali.

Sales for the company that enjoys almost half of the market share in passenger vehicles grew 10.6% to 110,599 units, the company said in a statement. Exports saw a marginal growth of 1% to 10,255 units in the month. For the April-November period of the current financial year, the company’s domestic sales grew 13.9%. At the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company’s stock was trading at Rs 4,565, marginally down from its previous close.

Shares of automobile companies are in focus with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) S&P BSE Auto index hitting a three-month high ahead of Ashok Leyland, Maruti Suzuki India and Tata Motors inclusion in the MSCI India index. The changes will be implemented as of the close of November 30, 2015.

Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki India, Ashok Leyland and Bajaj Auto were up 2% each, while Mahindra & Mahindra up 1% on the BSE in late morning deals.

India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki, which aims to increase its annual sales to about 2 million units by 2020, will invest Rs 15,000 crore over the next five years in procuring land for doubling its dealership network and expanding stockyard, warehouse and transportation infrastructure.

The company had sold 1.1 million vehicles in 2014-15. The volume increase in annual sales will be led by production at Maruti Suzuki's third plant in Gujarat, expected to become operational by early 2017.

The country’s largest car-maker, Maruti Suzuki India, is moving towards offering an automatic technology variant in every segment it is present in. Currently, Maruti offers a variant of semi-automatic and automatic technology in the Celerio, Alto K10, WagonR, Dzire, Baleno and the Ciaz. The models still having scope for offering the automatic technology include the best-selling hatchback Swift, utility vehicle Ertiga and the newly launched crossover S-Cross.

Mumbai/Tokyo: After trust issues doomed Suzuki Motor Corp.’s alliance with Volkswagen AG, the Japanese car maker now has to win over shareholders sceptical of plans for its crucial partnership with India’s largest car maker.

Suzuki wants to set up a wholly owned factory in India and supply cars and components to its 56%-owned unit Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. It’ll have to win over Maruti minority shareholders concerned that plans to have Suzuki focus on production and Maruti concentrate on sales and distribution will sideline the Indian unit.

MUMBAI: Proxy advisory firm Stakeholders Empowerment Services (SES) has termed the proposed contract manufacturing deal between Maruti Suzuki and parent Suzuki Motor as favourable to the minority shareholder of the Indian carmaker. Its view comes after Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) recommended its clients to vote against the proposal, under which a wholly owned unit of the Japanese major would produce cars and supply to Maruti.

Maruti Suzuki Baleno has got off to a flying start with over 21,000 bookings within 15 days of its launch, confirms the Indo-Japanese carmaker. Launched on 26th October 2015, the company sold a total of 4,229 units in just 5 days of its launch. Its rival Honda Jazz, the second best-selling premium hatchback as of now, could manage to maintain a lead of mere 267 units in October despite being on sale for the entire month. Honda sold 4,496 units of the Jazz in the festive month.

The Hyundai i20, however, remained the top-selling car in the segment with a total sales of 11,019 in the month. But with over 21,000 bookings already and 20 more days left in the month, there is a high possibility of the Baleno outselling the i20 in November 2015 sales.

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