Private sector lender Axis Bank reported a 16 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) fall in net profit to Rs 1,306 crore in the June quarter (Q1) on the back of flat net interest income (NII). NII, which is interest earned minus interest expended, rose 2.2 per cent in Q1 to Rs 4,616 crore from Rs 4,517 crore a year ago. However, non-interest income at Rs 3,000 crore, up 9.6 per cent y-o-y in Q1, came in handy for the bank.

Net interest margins (NIMs; a key profitability indicator) stood at 3.63 per cent in Q1 against 3.67 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year. The dip in NIMs was due to customers migrating to marginal cost of funds-based lending rate or MCLR. The bank guided for another 20-basis point (bp) reduction going ahead.

Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-L) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for incubating innovative ideas and business start-ups in the domestic energy sector.

Under the tie-up, the selected start-ups would be provided with seed funding and incubated at IIM-L Enterprise Incubation Centre (L-INCUBATOR). The MoU was signed recently during Startup Pitch Day at the Noida campus of IIM-L.

The Competition Commission today approved merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular in a $23-billion deal that will create the country’s largest telecom operator. Idea Cellular said the transaction is expected to close in 2018 subject to customary approvals. Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Co, which advised Vodafone in the deal, said the regulator has “unconditionally” approved merger of the telecommunications businesses of Vodafone India and its wholly-owned subsidiary Vodafone Mobile Services, with Idea Cellular. “The $23 billion transaction is the largest transaction by value in the history of Indian M&A,” it said in a statement. Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Co advised Vodafone India and Vodafone Mobile Services on the deal.

Opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha today demanded publication of the names of top 100 loan defaulters and sought to know under whose protection they were “thriving”. Raising the issue through a point of order, Naresh Agarwal (SP) said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), at a recent meeting of the parliamentary committee, had stated that 12 biggest loan defaults accounted for 25 per cent of the total NPA or bad debt in the country. But the RBI has refused to publish their names, he said, adding if a student or a farmer defaults on loan, his or her name is published. But the big corporate loan defaulters are not being named, he said. “Is Parliament greater or the RBI,” he asked.

Infrastructure firm Welspun Enterprises Ltd (WEL) today announced acquisition of 49 per cent stake in two road projects of NHAI from MBL Group for Rs 23 crore. The company also said that its board has approved the proposal of its subsidiary – Welspun Financial Services Limited (WFSL)- to apply to RBI for NBFC licence. “WEL has agreed to acquire 49 per cent stake in two NHAI Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) projects from MBL Group, subject to necessary approvals and statutory compliances. WEL will be the sponsor to these two projects, thus expanding its HAM project portfolio to three projects,” WEL said in a BSE filing.

Regulator Sebi will auction 16 properties owned by Sai Prasad Group in September for a total reserve price of over Rs 9 crore in order to recover funds worth thousands of crores raised by the Maharashtra-based group from public through illicit schemes. As part of the recovery proceedings, Sebi on September 4 will e-auction immovable properties of Sai Prasad Properties Ltd, Sai Prasad Foods Ltd and Sai Prasad Corporation Ltd. The properties to go under the hammer include land parcels, office premises, flats and commercial spaces across Maharashtra, Sebi said in an auction notice.

MUMBAI: For the first time, HDFC Bank has shrunk its ATM network by shutting down machines that were not seeing enough footfalls.

The bank has attributed this to a shift in customer behaviour from cash to electronic payments.

KOLKATA: An unexplained glitch in Air India's reservation system that triggered angry protests among passengers in Kolkata this weekend has the airline's commercial team on tenterhooks.

On Saturday, 194 passengers reported for Air India flight AI 731 from Kolkata to Guwahati when the Airbus A 319 aircraft had only 144 seats. Some airlines do resort to overbooking but never at this scale. While the 50 stranded passengers fumed and fretted, AI officials were left flummoxed at how it had happened.

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft on Monday announced the end of days for its pioneering Paint application as it focuses on software for 3-D drawing.

Paint drawing and image processing software that made its debut in 1985 with the Windows operating system was among the applications listed as "removed or deprecated" in a Windows 10 Fall Creators Update set for release later this year.

Creating history, the NSE Nifty on Tuesday breached the 10,000 level for the first time while the BSE Sensex hit another record high of 32,374.30 in opening trade led by rally in metal, banking, realty and FMCG stocks.

The 50-issue Nifty breached the historic 10,000 level by gaining 44.90 points, or 0.45 percent, to trade at all-time high of 10,011.30, surpassing its previous intra-day high of 9,982.05 touched on Monday. Brokers said sentiment was upbeat on sustained capital inflows and widespread buying by retail investors, driven by strong earnings by some more bluechip companies.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.