State Bank of India beat expectations and posted its highest quarterly profit in nearly seven years on Friday, as the country’s biggest lender by assets set aside lower provisions for bad loans and asset quality improved.

Its net profit was 39.55 billion rupees ($556 million) for the third quarter ended Dec. 31, versus a loss of 24.16 billion rupees a year ago, and analysts’ expectations for a profit of 32.08 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv data.

TRAI’s New Rule for DTH: TRAI’s ambitious plan to usher TV viewing in new era has kicked in today and while a large number of the population has already switched over to the new plan, the service providers along with the authority are regularly working to prioritize the switch, TRAI said in a press release on 31 January 2019.

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Friday reported a marginal increase in its sales at 1,51,721 units in January.

The company had sold 1,51,351 units in January last year, Maruti Suzuki India said in a statement.

Reversing a four-session slide, market benchmark Sensex surged over 665 points on Thursday as investors piled into recently beaten down banking, auto, IT and FMCG stocks ahead of the Union Budget.

Trading sentiment was also upbeat following US Federal Reserve’s dovish policy stance, which propelled global equities.

Against stiff competitive bidding, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has won two orders for Primary side heat exchangers from Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL).

Cumulatively valued at around Rs 97 Crore, the orders envisage manufacture and supply of four moderator Heat Exchangers and 18 D2O Heat Exchangers for the 2x700 MWe Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) to be installed at Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojna (GHAVP) in Fatehabad district of Haryana.

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel lost 5.7 crore mobile customers in December 2018, according to a company statement released Thursday.

Its mobile customer base in India at the end of December 2018 stood at 28.42 crore.

Former ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar, who was terminated with retrospective effect Wednesday, may have to return over Rs 9 crore performance bonus received as the bank’s executive head since 2009, sources said. Besides, she will also have to forgo her unexercised stocks options, they said.

Kochhar became the CEO and managing director of the country’s leading private sector lender in May 2009 and left the bank in October 2018.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday took three state-owned lenders out of the prompt corrective action (PCA) framework, lifting lending restrictions on the bank trio and providing some relief to the poll-bound government.

The three banks — Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra and Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) — were among 11 public sector lenders that were brought under the PCA framework by the apex bank.

NEW DELHI: The odds are both stacked against it and in favour of it. Following the tradition would make Finance Minister Piyush Goyal rise on Friday to present the 2019-20 interim budget. But this is a Narendra Modi government and an election year. So don’t be surprised if Goyal, inspired by his boss, presents to you a full-fledged budget and gives you all those tax breaks that you prayed for in the last four years.

Even as an aggressive pricing strategy led by price cuts by Bajaj Auto has helped in gaining significant market share (560 bps) in the economy segment in Q3FY19, analysts are concerned over the company’s declining Ebitda margins and have trimmed the estimates for the next two years.

Following a decline of 370 bps in Ebitda margins at 15.6% in the October-December quarter, analysts at Jefferies have trimmed the Ebitda estimates for the next two years by 5-8%. “We cut Ebitda estimates over FY19-21E by 5-8% mainly to reflect weaker gross margins,” they wrote.

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