The benchmark Sensex pared some of the early losses, but was still down 73.77 points at 31,724.07 in late morning deals, as selling pressure witnessed in key front—line stocks amid weak global cues.

Sentiments were subdued after escalating geo—political tensions between the US and North Korea, while capital outflows hovered around the bourses.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has responded to the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) stand that it does not have the ‘wherewithal’ to deal with competitive issues including predatory pricing. The Authority has said it has the powers to ensure measures to facilitate ‘competition’ and promoting efficiency.

In a letter to the fair trade regulator, Trai has said the Authority has been dealing with issues such as predatory pricing, anti-competitive behaviour, etc, for more than a decade and is competent to handle the issue in future, keeping in view the ‘dynamic nature’ of the telecom industry.

Indian Oil Corp has received the government nod to buy one very large ship full of crude oil from the US every month this year as it looks at cheaper alternatives that have emerged due to global supply glut. The shipping ministry has allowed the country’s largest oil firm to import one parcel or cargo of crude oil from the US every month in foreign ships, said a senior oil ministry official.India allows import of crude oil only on Indian carriers. As per the policy, Indian shipping lines get the first right of refusal by virtue of they being allowed to match any lowest bidder for transportation of crude oil. Only when they waive their right can the oil firms use a foreign line.

Microsoft has announced it will not support digital certificates issued by Chinese outfits WoSign and StartCom as “they failed to maintain the standards required by company’s Trusted Root Programme”. “[Microsoft has] Observed unacceptable security practices including back-dating SHA-1 certificates, mis-issuances of certificates, accidental certificate revocation, duplicate certificate serial numbers and multiple CAB Forum Baseline Requirements (BR) violations,” the company said in a post on Wednesday.

KOLKATA: Coal India will shut nearly 100 unprofitable mines over the next two-three years.Of this, 37 will close operations this year. Last year, Coal India closed down over 15 mines. A recent study showed that about 15 mines are highly profitable and 90 others can be made profitable.

“We have engaged Indian School of Mines and expertise of Singareni Collieries to chart out a roadmap for the set of 90 mines,“ a company executive said. “They would submit their study soon on the basis of which we would either merge a few of these mines with existing ones or change the method of operations in these mines.“

MUMBAI: Ashok Leyland is scouting for a battery maker to power its expansion into the electric vehicles space, encouraged by the government push to less-polluting mass mobility systems. The Chennai-based company has budgeted Rs 120 crore to develop almost half a dozen electric solutions.

The power ministry has the vision to put 18,000-20,000 of such buses on Indian roads by end of this decade. Storage solutions, essentially rechargeable batteries, are crucial in the development of electric vehicles.

An Ethiopian Airlines plane clipped wings with an Air India aircraft at the Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi.

The incident happened on Tuesday night when the Ethiopian Airlines' Boeing B767 plane was pushing back for take off and Air India's Airbus A320 was parked. The wings of the two planes collided with each other, said an Air India official on the condition of anonymity.

The Central government has not given investment bankers applying to manage the proposed merger of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) a waiver from the ‘conflict of interest’ clause.

While the bankers had requested the government to provide exemption from the existing conflict clause, the latter has reiterated its position, according to the Department of Public Asset Management (Dipam) website.

A one-time gain of Rs 3,609 crore (£437 million) embellished Tata Motors’s net profit for the April-June quarter. The company, which also owns luxury car brand Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), posted a 41.6 per cent growth in profit at Rs 3,200 crore, against Rs 2,260 crore it posted in the same quarter last financial year.

Without the one-time gain that came from changes in JLR’s pension plans, the company would have reported a loss on forex impact. The performance is, therefore, below analysts’ expectations of Rs 1,415-1,480 crore.

A number of companies, including J Kumar Infraprojects and Parsvnath Developers, on Wednesday approached the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) classifying them as shell companies.

Sebi defended the move even as several other firms are expected to take similar recourse and challenge the regulators decision asking stock exchanges to restrict trading in 331 firms referred to it by the government for being "suspected shell companies".

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