The craze for cryptocurrencies entered a new chapter on Monday as bitcoin futures rocketed by one-fifth of their value at a closely-watched launch, while Asian shares climbed amid optimism about global growth.

The most-traded contract on the Chicago-based CBOE Global Markets exchange opened at $15,460 in New York on Sunday evening, before leaping to a high of $18,700 - a gain of 21 per cent. They were last quoted at $17,550 a premium of more than $1,600 to the price on Gemini Exchange.

To increase their chances in the latest tender floated by state-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for hiring of tankers, domestic shipping companies are asking for an easing of the vessel-age criteria.

Early this month, separate tenders were floated by two state-owned oil refiner-marketer companies, IOC and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPC). They want to hire a VLCC (very large crude oil carrier) and a Suezmax tanker, respectively, for a contract period of five years.

The government is unlikely to allow foreign bidders to have a majority stake in Air India, which is in the process of privatisation. The group of ministers (GoM) exploring ways to privatise Air India is of the view that Indian ownership is important for the national carrier tag to be retained, sources said.

However, foreign investors will be able to participate in the bidding to own up to a 49 per cent stake in the loss-making carrier in a partnership with an Indian entity, it is learnt.

State Bank of India (SBI) has sanctioned around 10,000 home loans under the government’s Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) for home buyers from the economically weaker section (EWS), low income group (LIG) and middle income group (MIG) categories, said a senior executive at the bank. Vaijinath MG, chief general manager for real estate and housing business unit, told FE that demand for loans under the subsidy scheme was rising every month. “Last year, we saw demand particularly in the west, in states like Gujarat,” he said.

NEW DELHI: Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will launch its latest remote sensing satellite of the Cartosat-2 series, along with 28 foreign satellites riding piggy-back, only in the first week of January, a top Isro official said.

Director of Thiruvananthapuram-based Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), K Sivan clarified that there will be no launch this month and that launch services, which halted after the unsuccessful launch of navigation satellite IRNSS-1H on August 31, will "resume in the first week of the new year".

In a big relief to food companies, the country’s food regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Friday issued an order that effectively scraps almost all cases filed against food business operators for alleged violations of food safety standards and regulations in the past.

This would, according to the FSSAI order, prevent “avoidable harassment” of food companies.

Ahmedabad: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday released its election manifesto called Sankalp Patra (vision document) for Gujarat just a day before polling for the first phase of Gujarat elections on 9 December.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, while releasing the BJP manifesto in Ahmedabad, criticized the Congress’s promises on reservation and financial concessions in its manifesto as “constitutionally impossible” and “financially improbable if not impossible”.

London/Tokyo: Bitcoin lost almost a fifth of its value in 10 hours on Friday, having surged more than 40% in the preceding 48 hours, sparking fears the market may be heading for a price collapse.

In a hectic day on Thursday, bitcoin leapt from below $16,000 to $19,500 in less than an hour on the US-based GDAX, one of the biggest exchanges globally, while it was still changing hands at about $15,900 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp.

Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Friday strengthened against the US dollar after local equity markets gained for second sessions.

The home currency ended at 64.46 a dollar, up 0.18% from its Thursday’s close of 64.57. The rupee opened at 64.55 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 64.45 and 64.59, respectively.

Observing that a lot of improvement is needed in corporate governance framework, Sebi whole time member G Mahalingam has called for more research work on this issue particularly in the area of board evaluation.

“Lot more research and work can be done in the area of corporate governance. Recently Uday Kotak came out with its set of regulations. What are the areas in corporate governance that need improvement is a fertile area for research,” Mahalingam said here late last evening.

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