Mumbai: Life Insurance Corp. of India (LIC) has put in a major bid for shares of reinsurer General Insurance Corp. of India Ltd (GIC Re), in the latter’s ongoing initial public offering (IPO), said two people aware of the development, on the condition of anonymity.

The GIC Re IPO is looking to raise Rs11,372 crore ($1.7 billion) at the upper end of the price band of Rs855-912 per share. The share sale values the insurance firm at Rs80,000 crore.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is likely to report an increase in profit for the three months to September, benefiting from higher refining margins that will offset weaker earnings from its petrochemicals business.

Stand-alone quarterly net profit is likely to increase to Rs8,687.5 crore on revenue of Rs66,088 crore, according to a Bloomberg poll of seven analysts.

Reports on the 2017 Ford EcoSport have been doing rounds for quite some time now and its launch is now around the corner. Ford had revealed the much awaited compact SUV earlier in the European market and is expected to be launched in India after the festive season. Recently, the upcoming EcoSport's top version - Titanium S diesel was been spied by Team-BHP.com without camouflage, revealing its new bright blue colour. This could mean that the company will introduce the new Titanium S variants for the 2017 model that will get additional features over the current Titanium Plus version. The new compact SUV, as seen in the images, gets a major upgrade at the front that includes a more prominent and larger front grille than the outgoing model.

Rupee: The benchmark Sensex went up 113 points and the NSE Nifty seized control of 10,000 level today as domestic investors raised the bar ahead of key industrial output numbers to be released later in the day. Another record close on Wall Street after the release of the US Fed minutes fuelled the uptrend. The 30-share Sensex was higher by 112.53 points, or 0.35 per cent, at 31,946.52. Healthcare, realty, IT, capital goods, oil and gas and auto stocks were in the pink of health, rising by up to 0.86 per cent. The gauge had lost 90 points yesterday.

Bank of Baroda is being investigated by South Africa’s central bank over money held for companies controlled by the politically connected Gupta family, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The South African Reserve Bank’s probe, which comes after it fined the bank in June for not doing enough to combat financial crime, was sparked after the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse alleged in court papers that mine-rehabilitation funds held for two of the Gupta family’s companies had been mismanaged and used to repay loans, the person said.

India Post, the most widely distributed postal network in the world, has launched International Tracked Packet specially designed to cater to the needs of e-commerce for cross-border transactions.

The service, launched on the occasion of World Post Day at a function held in New Delhi by Minister of State for Communications and Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha, can also be availed by individuals who can get benefits like economical service for shipments to Asia Pacific region.

Iraqi authorities say a suicide bomber has struck a cafe in the western city of Hit, killing 11 people.

The city's security bureau says 15 other people were wounded in today's blast, and that the victims are all civilians. It says emergency services and security forces are at the scene. The city is located in the sprawling Anbar province.

India will work with Japan to make long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) import deals more affordable for its price-sensitive consumers, it said on Wednesday, as these two big importers try to secure better prices and concessions from suppliers.

The arrangement will help state-run GAIL India Ltd swap a part of its 5.8 million tonnes of LNG booked with firms from the United States with that of Japan's contracted volumes in Asia and elsewhere, Sunjay Sudhir, joint secretary for international cooperation in India's federal oil ministry, told Reuters.

State-owned Air India has taken the delivery of its last Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, which will be inducted in its fleet tomorrow.

The new plane was delivered to Air India in the presence of its chairman and managing director Rajiv Bansal at the Seattle facility of the US aircraft maker Boeing Co, an airline source said.

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the country's market regulator, filed a contempt petition against Sahara's Subrato Roy and other senior executives for allegedly obstructing the auction of its prized Aamby Valley.

Representing SEBI, advocate Pratap Venugopal, mentioned the matter before a bench led by the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and submitted that the approximately Rs 37,000 crore project "had adopted subterfuge methods to avoid auction of the property."

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.