Extending Tuesday’s rally, the benchmark BSE Sensex jumped over 200 points to record a new high of 36,747.87 in early trade on Wednesday amid buying by domestic institutional investors and easing global crude oil prices.

The market rally was driven by strong buying on the oil & gas, banking, PSU and realty counters and strength in the rupee.

The board of ONGC has approved exiting helicopter service provider Pawan Hans by selling its entire 49 per cent stake as it looks to cut debt and consolidate resources in core oil and gas business, officials with direct knowledge of the development said. Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) wants its interest to be clubbed with the 51 per cent government stake that is already on offer for sale, they said.

The simmering battle at the country’s sixth largest mutual fund, UTI, has erupted into a full-scale war, and the mutual fund’s proposed initial public offering (IPO) could be the first casualty with its managing director Leo Puri’s tenure also coming to an end next month, and no successor nominated.

Riding on a favourable base effect, Ashok Leyland (ALL) on Tuesday beat analysts estimates by posting a 233% year-on-year growth in its net profit at Rs 370 crore during the April-June quarter.

This is the company’s highest quarterly growth in over two years. During the period, the company’s revenue increased 47% to Rs 6,250 crore, which was below estimates.

Country’s largest IT services company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), bouyed by its BFSI turnaround in the first quarter of FY19, has said the growth of the vertical is sustainable at least in the medium term as the banking, financial services & insurance sector has moved from compliance phase to growth trajectory, worldwide.

MUMBAI: Mercedes-Benz India is strengthening its go-to-market strategy to reach out to premium customers in tier-II and tier-III towns. The company is tapping 15 such markets — Jalgaon, Gandhinagar, Jamnagar, Valsad, Kutch, Amravati, Udupi, Bellary, Dharwad, etc, — this year to make basic service available for a luxury car buyer in these places.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has rejected Vodafone India and Idea Cellular’s requests to recalculate their dues, saying its numbers are fine and that India’s second- and third-ranked telcos should pay up to get a final seal of approval on their merger at the earliest.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Chairman R S Sharma has said that apps should collect minimal data just as UIDAI does to give 12-digit Aadhaar numbers to people.

Some apps are ridiculously collecting more-than-required data and the customers are unaware of what is being done with it, he said.

As Amazon marked its "Prime Day" with price cuts across a range of products, founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos saw his net worth hit new peaks, increasing his lead over fellow billionaires.

Bezos's net worth topped $150 billion on Monday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the world's richest person in decades.

Private sector lender YES Bank may rope in Suresh Soni, former head of DHFL Pramerica AMC, to spearhead its foray into the Rs 23-trillion mutual fund industry. In early July, Yes Bank announced it had received the go-ahead from Securities and Exchange Board of India to start its mutual fund operations. Yes AMC will become the 43rd fund house to join the MF industry.

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