NEW DELHI: Equity markets opened on a positive footing on Friday as Sensex and Nifty were gaining nearly half a per cent each in initial trading.

Both the benchmark indices started trading with modest gains but soon extended them with all sectoral sub-indices in the green. The midcap stocks were outperforming with the Nifty Midcap index gaining almost a per cent on Friday morning.

In a notification to the stock exchanges on Wednesday, Siemens Ltd said it plans to sell its mobility division (which houses businesses linked to transport) along with the rail traction drives business and the mechanical drives business to its parent, Siemens AG or a wholly-owned subsidiary.

The facilities of VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV), a joint venture between the Volvo Group and Eicher Motors, are running at near-full capacity, thanks to the strong demand for commercial vehicles due to rising infrastructure activity and delivery of e-commerce shipments by leaders like Flipkart and Amazon. To address this, the company is planning to expand capacity in the coming fiscal.

2018 Hyundai Elite i20 was launched during the 2018 Auto Expo just this month, and as announced by the South Korean brand during the launch of the facelift, the i20 will now soon be available with an automatic gearbox. It comes both in petrol and diesel variants, but while the 1.2-litre petrol came with a five-speed manual and the diesel with a six-speed manual, a CVT version of the Elite i20 will be launched in May 2018.

The combined market value of all listed state-owned banks has plunged below that of just one private lender – HDFC Bank – after a massive sell-off in shares of public sector banks in the wake of the biggest banking fraud in India. The combined market capitalisation of the 21 listed public sector banks on Thursday stood at Rs 4.34 lakh crore, Rs 46,726 crore less than the valuation of HDFC Bank at Rs 4.81 lakh crore. Interestingly, these 21 banks account for about 70% of the total advances of all listed banks, according to Capitaline data. HDFC Bank’s share of advances of this set is about 7.5%.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) today said its construction arm has won orders worth Rs 1,266 crore across business segments.

L&T said its buildings and factories business has bagged orders worth Rs 928 crore.

Punjab National Bank took to Twitter to refute reports of transferring 18,000 employees in wake of Rs 11,000 crore scam involving Nirav Modi.

In a clarification issued by the bank, PNB said that it had transferred a total of 1,415 employees since February 19.

The Trump administration has announced a new policy that makes very tough the procedure of issuing H-1B visas to those to be employed at one or more third-party worksites, a move that will hugely impact Indian IT companies and their employees.

Under the new policy, the company would have to go an extra length to prove that its H-1B employee at a third-party worksite has specific and non-qualifying speculative assignments in speciality occupation.

Infosys shareholders have approved the appointment of Salil S Parekh as chief executive officer and managing director of the company, the company has said in a regulatory filing.

As per results of postal ballot and e-voting filed by the IT major, 97.96 per cent shareholders through the physical ballot and electronic mode voted in favour of the appointment of Parekh on February 20, 2018.

After a successful pilot, Coca-Cola has decided to expand its frozen fruit dessert offering in major metros. This is part of the company's strategy to build a portfolio beyond carbonated drinks.

Coca-Cola India president T Krishnakumar said that the company planned to take the offering to the top five metros by this summer. The company has been testing this product in Bengaluru. Similarly, the company is also planning to come out with a few value-added dairy-related products, which are more ready-to-drink beverages, by the second half of 2018.

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