Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has posted a 45 per cent drop in net profit to Rs 4,548.51 crore for the April-June quarter of financial year 2017-18, as against Rs 8,268.98 crore during the corresponding quarter in FY17.

The reason for the drop in net profit was due to a higher inventory loss of Rs 2,033 crore for the quarter under review, compared to an inventory gain of Rs 3,785 crore in the year-ago quarter. A dip in gross refining margin (GRM) is also seen as a reason for the decline in profit. The average GRM for the quarter under review stood at $4.32 per barrel, while the GRM for April to June 2016-17 was $9.98 a barrel.

The ongoing tussle between NR Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys, and the board turned murkier as the veteran has reportedly asked the findings of the law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas relating to corporate governance lapses to be made public. Earlier,Infosys had hired Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas to review the corporate governance practices in the company. The law firm was to gather inputs from the promoters and other key stakeholders and evaluate them to make recommendations to the board. Previously, the founders had raised issues pertaining to the quantum of salary hike given to the CEO Vishal Sikka and the size of the severance packages given to former CFO Rajiv Bansal and former General Counsel David Kennedy.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday, as the IT services provider benefited from lower income tax compared with the year-ago period.

The company's net income rose 87 percent to $470 million, or 80 cents per share, from $252 million, or 41 cents per share, a year earlier.

Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp on Thursday posted a 43.8 per cent jump in its first-quarter operating profit, a sixth consecutive year-on-year rise, boosted by strong sales growth in its biggest market, India, and at home.

Operating profit at Japan's No 4 automaker came in at 85.1 billion yen ($769 million) in April-June, up from 59.2 billion yen a year ago and above an average forecast for 73.96 billion from eight analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

The introduction of the Goods and Service Tax (GST) has pushed down activity in the services sector to a nearly four-year low in July even as manufacturing activity reels at an eight-and-a half-year low.

The widely-tracked Nikkei Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) on Thursday showed that PMI for the dominating sector of the Indian economy plunged to 45.9, its lowest level since September 2013. At an eight-month high, PMI had been 53.1 in the previous month of June.

In a setback to Congress party, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to stay Election Commission's notification allowing None Of The Above (NOTA) option for Rajya Sabha poll.

The top court, however, agreed to examine constitutional validity of poll panel's notification to give an option of NOTA in elections.

Shares of state-owned oil refiners rallied by up to 5% on BSE in intra-day trade on report that the government will end subsidy on kerosene.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) gained 5% to Rs 388, while Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) surged 4.4% to Rs 401 and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) rose 3% to Rs 499 on BSE in intra-day trade. On comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 159 points or 0.49% at 32,318 at 10:25 am.

India's largest lender State Bank of India plans to raise Rs 2,000 crore by allotting Basel-III compliant bonds to various investors.

"The committee of directors for capital raising accorded its approval today to allot 20,000 AT1 Basel-III compliant non-convertible, perpetual, subordinated bonds in the nature of debentures... Aggregating Rs 2,000 crore to various investors," State Bank of India (SBI) said in a regulatory filing on Thursday.

Bajaj Finance Ltd said on Wednesday it would buy nearly an 11 per cent stake in mobile payments wallet company One MobiKwik Systems Private Ltd for about Rs 225 crore ($35.36 million).

Bajaj Finance will enter into a subscription agreement with MobiKwik to buy 10 equity shares and 271,050 compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS), Bajaj Finance said.

China has again extended by three months its technical hold on the US, France and UK- backed proposal to list JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar as a designated terrorist by the UN.

China had in February this year blocked the US move to designate Azhar as a global terrorist at UN. The deadline for China to take action on its technical hold was till August 2.

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