The benchmark BSE Sensex advanced almost 64 points to 29,400.14 in early trade on Thursday on sustained buying by domestic institutional investors amid firm Asian cues.

The 30-share index rose 63.57 points or 0.22% to 29,400.14. The gauge had gained 17.43 points in the previous session. Also, the NSE Nifty was up 23 points, or 0.25%, to 9,126.50.

State-run National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), on Wednesday said its board has approved the proposal to increase the amount to be raised by issuing bonds in international markets to US $6 billion from US $4 billion.

"The Board of Directors, in its meeting held on April 19, 2017, has accorded approval for updating and upsizing the US $4 billion MTN (medium term note) programme up to US $6 billion for raising debt from international markets to part finance capital expenditure on new/ongoing projects, coal mining projects, renovation and modernisation of power stations and for other permissible end uses," it said in a BSE filing.

Korean auto major Hyundai has sharpened its rural focus and aims to get more than one-fourth of its sales from buyers in villages and small towns this year. The second -largest car maker in the country got about 23 per cent of sales from rural markets in 2016 calendar year.

“The focus will be on rural for future growth. We have set up a new department to focus on the rural market. We will create a different communication strategy on the products that are well suited for these markets. Every regional office and most dealership now have a rural team. The matrix has been completed,” said Rakesh Srivastava, director (sales & marketing) at Hyundai.

Reliance Industries Ltd has commissioned world’s largest and most complex ethane project, including commissioning of its ethane receipt & handling facilities and ethane cracking, at its Dahej facility in Gujarat in a world record time of less than three years.

Reliance is the first company to globally conceptualise large-scale imports of ethane from North America as feedstock for its cracker portfolio in India. The project involved seamless integration of several elements across a complex infrastructure value chain.

Driven by a surge in sale of its single-premium policy and falling interest rates, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has registered a 27.22 per cent growth in first year premium (FYP) in FY17.

Total FYP rose to Rs 1,24,396.27 crore in FY17 from Rs 97,777.47 crore in the previous year. It resulted in the insurance giant increasing its market share to 71.07 per cent from the last year's 70.61 per cent, the state-run corporation said in a statement.

Exposure to a single cement company made a Rs 350-crore dent in the net profits of IndusInd Bank and YES Bank, private lenders otherwise known to have better control on asset quality.

IndusInd Bank and YES Bank had to make provisions of Rs 122 crore and Rs 228 crore, respectively, for their exposure to this account, in compliance with a Reserve Bank notification.

Indian Oil, National Fertilizers, L&T and Godrej & Boyce are among those that have won the top National Safety Council (NSC) award — Sarva Shreshtha Suraksha Puraskar — for 2016. The NSCI Safety Awards will be presented by Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya tomorrow here, a labour ministry statement said. According to the statement, Indian Oil’s Digboi refinery, National Fertilizers, Panipat, and NPCIL, Kaiga Generating Station 3 and 4, Karnataka, are among the winners in the manufacturing sector.

You would be lying if you have never regretted sending messages on WhatsApp that you weren’t meant to send. These messages might have been to your boss, your professors, that sulky colleague or just maybe you were at fault and were drunk. However, that damage has been done. Although, according to Twitter account WABetainfo, that damage, if done recently can be fixed to a certain extent. WABInfo says that WhatsApp web users could soon be able to ‘unsend’ a message within 5 minutes of sending it.

Rupee made a mild comeback as it recovered 8 paise to 64.55 against the dollar on Wednesday after fresh selling of the US currency amid a higher opening in domestic equities. A weak dollar overseas supported the rupee, forex dealers said.

Meanwhile, the dollar index fell to a near three-week low on disappointing US housing starts data. On day, the rupee had lost 11 paise to close at 64.63 on dollar demand from importers as growing geopolitical unrest hastened the flight to safety.

Buoyed by forecast of a normal monsoon and shrugging off weak trend in global markets, the benchmark BSE Sensex rose over 54 points in opening trade on Wednesday after investors took to select stock-picking. The 30-share barometer was trading higher by 54.45 points, or 0.18%, at 29,373.55 with IT, power, technology, healthcare and FMCG sector stocks leading the recovery.

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.