Facing public resentment over the recent spike in fuel prices, the government on Tuesday cut the excise duty on both branded and unbranded petrol and diesel by Rs 2 a litre from Wednesday. According to sources, the finance ministry was initially reluctant to reduce the duty due to revenue concerns, but relented after discussions with the petroleum ministry on implementing steps to bring down petrol prices to Rs 60-65 a litre.

While this would hit the revenues of the exchequer by Rs 13,000 crore in the second half of the current financial year at a time when the fiscal deficit has already touched 96 per cent of the Budget Estimates, consumers will get relief as the move would reduce the consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation rate by 9 basis points as a first round impact.

Bajaj Auto hits a new high of Rs 3,208, up 3% on BSE after the company reported a highest ever total sales of 428,752 units in September against 376,765 units sold in the same month last year. The company recorded sales growth of 14% in September, its highest monthly sales growth rate since March 2016.

Bajaj Auto’s commercial vehicles sales were up 32% at 59,074 units as against 44,789 in the corresponding month last year. Motorcycle sales were at 369,678 units as against 331,976 in the year-ago month, up 11%, the company said in a statement.

Reliance Communications (RCom) hit a record low of Rs 17.45, down 9% on BSE in early morning trade, after the company said that it has called off its merger with Aircel, owned by Maxis of Malaysia. The stock surpassed its previous low of Rs 17.80 touched on June 14, 2017 on BSE in intra-day trade.

“Legal and regulatory uncertainties, and various interventions by vested interests, have caused inordinate delays in receipt of relevant approvals for the proposed transaction,” RCom said in a statement.

Nissan Motor Co Ltd will recall all 1.2 million new passenger cars it sold in Japan over the past three years after discovering final vehicle inspections were not performed by authorised technicians, it said on Monday.

The recall is the second major misconduct incident involving a Japanese automaker in as many years, after Mitsubishi Motors Corp admitted in April 2016 it had falsified the fuel economy for some of its domestic market models.

SBI Life Insurance Company made a quite debut by listing at Rs 735, a 5% premium against its initial public offer (IPO) price of Rs 700 per share on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

At 10:02 AM; the stock was trading at Rs 734 on the NSE. It hit a high of Rs 740 and low of Rs 730 so far. A combined 11.5 million shares exchanged hands on the NSE and BSE.

Tata Motors surged 7% to Rs 428 on BSE in early morning trade after the company reported a strong 25% increase in domestic sales at 53,965 units in September. The company had sold 43,031 units in September 2016. The stock recorded its sharpest intra-day gain since November 8, 2016, when it rose 6.9% in intra-day trade.

“This is at the back of growing festive demand across segments, increased positive customer sentiments, introduction of new products and strong customer engagement initiatives,” Tata Motors said in a statement.

New Delhi: SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd, which recently completed its initial share sale offer, will make its stock market debut on Tuesday.

The company’s Rs8,400 crore initial public offering (IPO) was subscribed 3.57 times on 22 September. The portion meant for qualified institutional buyers was oversubscribed 12.56 times, while that of non-institutional investors received 70% subscriptions and retail investors 85%, data available with the NSE showed.

Washington: Nasa has pushed the planned launch of its $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope from October 2018 to the spring of 2019, citing spacecraft-integration issues.

The successor to the famed Hubble Space Telescope, Webb will now launch between March and June 2019 from French Guiana, following a schedule assessment of the remaining integration and test activities, Nasa said.

NEW DELHI: IT firm Tech Mahindra, in collaboration with electricity trade platform provider Power Ledger, on Friday announced a series of trials to develop a new mechanism of electricity production through 'Microgrid-as-a-Service' (MaaS).

MaaS is an integrated platform incubated by Tech Mahindra to create a new model in the electricity market which will enable building owners, campuses, Smart Cities and other communities to produce and manage their own electricity affordably and even trade in case of excess generation.

Akash Ambani, Mukesh Ambani's son who also played a relevant role in rolling out JioPhone unveiled iPhone8 and 8 Plus in India today. The event held at Reliance Jio headquarters in Navi Mumbai.

Reliance Industries' chairman, Mukesh Ambani and CEO of Apple, Tim Cook addressed the event via video messages.

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