Markets continued to trade flat with negativc bias weighed down by profit taking in IT majors after recent gains post upbeat earnings from Infosys and index heavyweight ITC.

At 10:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 42 points at 26,342 and the 50-share Nifty was down 17 points at 7,868.

Auto major Tata Motors is upbeat about the growth of compact sedan segment in Madhya Pradesh and expects the festive demand to help auto sector recover from the current slag, said officials.

Last month, the company launched its compact sedan 'Zest' which received very good response throughout the country.

At the annual shareholders' meeting of Tata Motors (then Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company, or Telco) in August 2001, Ratan Tata offered to resign from the company's chairmanship if shareholders so wished. Though Tata's offer remained just that - merely an offer - quite a few shareholders and analysts criticised the management strategy of transforming Telco into a full-fledged passenger car maker.

In July, when Tata group Chairman Cyrus Mistry identified defence & aerospace as one of the four clusters that could drive growth for the conglomerate over the next decade, he clearly had his eye on the estimated $250 billion (Rs 15 lakh crore) that the government would spend to purchase arms and equipment in this period. The other three clusters, in Mistry's view, were consumer goods, infrastructure and financial services.

Markets are trading flat in the noon trades with select metal and power stocks losing the most after the Supreme Court in its verdict today cancelled most of the coal blocks allocated. However, buying in the defensive stocks have limit losses.

At 2:38PM, the 30-share Sensex is up 27 points 26,803 and the 50-share Nifty has gained 1 point at 8,018.

Tata Motors has moved higher by 4.2% to Rs 541, also its new high on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

The stock opened at Rs 515 and touched a low of Rs 514 in early morning deals on NSE. A combined 5.94 million shares changed hands on the counter so far on NSE and BSE.

Shares of Index heavyweight Tata Motors dipped more than 1% to Rs 506 on the BSE in the early trades after global wholesales in August 2014, including Jaguar Land Rover, stood at 73,524 units showing a declination of 10% from the corresponding month last year.

Global wholesales of all Tata Motors’ commercial vehicles and Tata Daewoo range stood at 30,536 units and passenger vehicles in August 2014 stood at 11,338 units.

Tata Motors has surged more than 2% to Rs 528 on the BSE after receiving an order of approximately 2,700 Urban buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM)- II scheme.

According to the company, it received an order for 487 units from KSRTC (Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation) and another for supply of 780 units from HRTC (Himachal Road Transport Corporation) for Tata Marcopolo built buses as per “Urban Bus Specifications” under JnNURM - II scheme.

Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, has made a personal investment in e-commerce company Snapdeal. This announcement, which is expected to intensify the competition in the online retail space, comes just a day after Snapdeal and Tata Value Homes entered into a strategic alliance.

The value of the investment made by Ratan Tata has not been disclosed.

Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Tuesday said that they would challenge the Competition Commission of India's (CCI) order that imposed huge penalty on auto companies on Tuesday.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) – the largest utility vehicle maker issued a statement on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) saying, "The company aggrieved by this order proposes to appeal against it before the appropriate forum."

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