The rupee firmed up by 10 paise to 70.06 against the US dollar in early trade at the Interbank Forex market today on selling of the American currency by exporters and banks amid fresh foreign funds inflow. Besides, the dollar’s weakness against other currencies overseas gave the rupee strength, dealers said. They said a record opening of the domestic equity markets, too kept the rupee firm.

The Bank Nifty index on Monday recorded its biggest single-day gain in three months after renewed buying interest pushed most of the banking stocks up. Shares of ICICI Bank advanced nearly 3% on Monday while Kotak Mahindra Bank rose 1.6%. State Bank of India (SBI) shares gained 2.5%.

The Centre will likely sell a 5% stake in the country’s largest oil explorer ONGC in what could be one of its largest disinvestment exercises in the current fiscal. At current prices (the ONGC stock closed Rs 176.20 on Monday), the stake sale may fetch the exchequer Rs 11,300 crore.

The department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) held roadshows in the US last week to reach out to potential investors for the proposed offer for sale (OFS) of the government’s stake in ONGC.

Q1FY19 PAT was Rs 2.7 bn. Earnings growth was led by strong AUM growth, expansion in reported spreads and improvement in cost-to-income ratio. Asset quality improved as gross stage-3 ratio declined 510bps y-o-y.

Disbursement growth was also strong during the quarter, driven by high disbursement in the CV, pre-owned vehicle and tractor segments. We consider the stock attractive at 3.1x FY20E P/Adj B and maintain our ‘buy’ rating.

At a time when private companies are staring at insolvency, SBI Caps has worked out a bailout package for state-owned Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC), where the State Bank of India is one of the lead bankers. In a presentation outlining the mechanism for loan resolution, it has proposed that the SBI offer a debt of Rs 21 billion to refinance Gujarat State Financial Services (GSFS) Ltd’s loan to GSPC.

The stock-broking arm of India’s Axis Bank on Monday began offering commodity derivatives trading on the Multi Commodity Exchange platform, making it the first subsidiary of a bank to offer the service. The Reserve Bank of India had allowed bank subsidiaries to provide commodity broking services in September last year, as the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the capital market regulator, tries to deepen the market.

BSNL has extended its Monsoon Offer validity to provide the complimentary benefits to the customers for a longer period. The state-owned telecom company introduced the offer back in June after Jio came with its Monsoon Double Dhamaka Offer. The BSNL Monsoon Offer entitles the customers who have bought select plans with 2GB additional data per day on top of the allotted data.

Liabilities of big willful defaulters of scam-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) fell by 1.8 per cent to Rs 15,175 crore by July-end over the previous month, according the State-run bank’s data.

Big willful defaulters are those who took loans of over Rs 25 lakh from the bank.

Such borrowers had an outstanding of Rs 15,355 crore at end of June this year.

Reliance Communications (RJIO) today said it has completed the sale of its fibre assets and related infrastructure assets, worth Rs 3,000 crore, to Mukesh Ambani-backed Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIO).

“With successful completion of the fibre monetisation transaction, 1,78,000 kilometers fibre stand transferred to RJIO,” Reliance Communications said in a BSE filing.

RIL share price: Shares of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries rose over 1% in morning deals on Monday after the company raised its stake in Genesis Colors Ltd by over 3%. Reliance Industries share price edged higher by 1.12% to a new 52-week high of Rs 1,291.80 on the National Stock Exchange. On the BSE, the company’s share price went up by 1.08% to hit a fresh record high of Rs 1,291.85 per share.

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