The government is expecting to have the winning bidder for national carrier Air India by the end of June and the "legal closing" of the transaction by year-end, Union Minister Jayant Sinha said on Friday.

To revive the fortune of the debt-laden carrier, the government has decided on a strategic disinvestment and a group of ministers is working on the modalities.

Bajaj Auto hit a new high of Rs 3,473, up 2% on BSE in early morning trade, after the company reported healthy sales growth for January, with total sales jumping 46% at 353,147 units over the previous year. It had sold total 241,917 units in the same month last year.

The company’s overall motorcycles sales jump 36% year on year (YoY) at 288,936 units.

The first month of 2018 seems to have brought big cheers to the automobile makers in the country as they logged good growth in volumes.

"2018 has started on a positive and promises progressive growth for the industry, with company's volume growth of 8.3 per cent on improved buying potential, led by stable micro economic factors," said Rakesh Srivastava, Director, Sales and Marketing, at Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: On Friday, the markets in early trading, gave a cold shoulder to Budget 2018 as the benchmark indices tanked below key psychological markets.

Sensex lost 580 points to slip to intra-day low of 35,314.97. Nifty's intra-day low came at 10,826.50, almost 300 points below previous closing mark.

New Delhi:The Union budget has allocated a record Rs1.48 trillion for Indian Railways to raise its carrying capacity and improve the train travel experience.

Of this, Rs1.46 trillion is capital expenditure, while Rs2,028 crore is to reimburse operating losses on strategic lines and reimburse IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) for the operational cost of e-ticketing.

Mumbai: Large companies may have to compulsorily borrow a fourth of their financing requirements from the bond market and long-term investors may be encouraged to buy A-rated bonds, as part of continuing efforts by the government and regulators to limit the exposure of banks to companies and develop the corporate bond market.

India captain Virat Kohli today said that the six-wicket victory in the first one-dayer against South Africa will give his side the momentum in the remainder of the six-match series.

"First match of the series is important. We wanted to take the momentum of the (third) Test win into this and when we restricted South Africa to 270 on this sort of a pitch, we were happy," Kohli, who hit 112 of 119 balls for his first ODI hundred in South Africa, said after the match.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s fifth and final Union Budget of the current term of the Narendra Modi government was evidence that the top BJP leadership has drawn the right lessons from its tenuous poll victory in Gujarat in December.

In Gujarat, the BJP had to face the ire of farmers for agrarian distress, of youth for lack of job opportunities and of the MSMEs (the micro, small and medium enterprises sector). The Budget has reached out to these key sectors.

Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland has recorded a 21.7 per cent rise in its sales in January 2017 to 18,101 units.

The city-based commercial vehicle major had sold 14,872 units during same month of last year, the company said in a statement.

he country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) today reported 4.8 per cent increase in total sales at 1,51,351 units in January compared to 1,44,396 units in the same month of 2017.

The company's domestic sales stood at 1,40,600 units, up 5 per cent from 1,33,934 units in January 2017, MSI said in a statement.

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