Commercial vehicle (CV) major Ashok Leyland is planning to invest around Rs 1 billion in the electric vehicle (EV) technology over the next two-three years. The company is also planning to showcase the prototype of its first EV product at the upcoming Auto Expo 2018, scheduled to start this week in New Delhi.

Ashok Leyland’s total planned capital expenditure for the 2018-19 financial year, including the expense of expanding its cabin facility, debottlenecking and investment in technologies, would be Rs 5-7 billion, said Chief Financial Officer Gopal Mahadevan.

Mumbai: In the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, which will be held today in Mumbai, the apex bank is expected to keep policy rates on hold for this week.

The six-member MPC, which is headed by RBI Governor Urijit Patel will meet for the sixth bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement for 2017-18, later in the day.

Going by Tata Motors Ltd’s December quarter performance that missed profit estimates by a wide margin, the road ahead is likely to be a rough one. The main worry is due to the disappointing performance of its cash-cow Jaguar Land Rover Ltd (JLR) that has been churning out healthy profits for several years and which churned out 90% to 100% of the consolidated profits.

For the quarter, Tata Motors’ consolidated net profit of Rs 1,212 crore missed Bloomberg’s 15-broker average estimate by a huge 48%.

Bajaj Auto’s three-wheelers are on a fast track. The end of the permit raj for autorickshaws in Maharashtra has pushed the company’s three-wheeler sales to record highs in FY18 and this good run is expected to continue in FY19 too. Bajaj Auto has emerged as a major beneficiary of the end of the permit system in Maharashtra and issue of new permits in Delhi. There has been a recovery in three-wheeler exports as well, and the company is set to exceed its annual sales targets this year.

While core PPOP was largely in line (flat opex offset weak revenues), lower trading profit led to sharply lower bottom line. Net stressed assets declined to 8.7% of net customer assets. We hope top line growth revives with resolutions/ lower credit costs aiding RoA improvement. Retain Buy with PT of Rs 410.

Core PPOP: NIM at 3.14% was marginally better while fee income disappointed — management guides for double-digit growth on full year basis.

Q3 was strong on robust 38.2% Y-o-Y growth in Individual Rated Premium (IRP; market share further up to 13% vs 11.2% in FY17), improvement in persistency ratio (in majority of buckets), a gradual uptick in Value of New Business margin (VNB; up 40 bps q-o-q to 16%) and efficient cost management (calc expense ratio down 196 bps q-o-q to 10.9%). Consequently, PAT was in line at Rs 230 crore (up 20.9% y-o-y). VNB came in at Rs 930 crore and VNB margin at 16% in 9MFY18.

The Sensex lost over 1,000 points in opening trade on Tuesday on global cues to come down below 34,000-mark. While the 30-share index tanked 1,200 points in opening trade, it was trading at 33,866.27, below 890.89 points (2.56%), at 09:30 am.

The 50-share NSE Nifty is trading at 10,404.30, below 262.25 points or (2.46%).

In a strategy running contrary to trend of hardening of rates, Bank of Baroda (BoB) has slashed benchmark lending rate — Marginal Cost of funds-based Lending Rates [MCLR] by 10-25 basis points for tenors less than one year.

The lender has also decided to discontinue the computation and declaration of MCLR for tenors above one year.

Mumbai/New Delhi:Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) is facing a delay of at least a year in starting production from its biggest project, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The nation’s top explorer, which planned to produce gas from a deep water block in the Krishna-Godavari basin off the country’s east coast from June 2019, won’t produce first gas until at least the second half of 2020, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

Mumbai: Investigative agencies have turned their lens on bitcoin users after earlier surveying cryptocurrency exchanges. Last month, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the income tax department (IT) jointly raided users of cryptocurrencies in a few locations suspecting money laundering, fraud and tax evasion, said people aware of the development.

The agencies surveyed bitcoin users in Ahmedabad and Surat last month, said an ED official on condition of anonymity.

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