The benchmark BSE Sensex fell over 73 points and the NSE Nifty dipped below the 9,200-mark in early trade today as investors indulged in cutting down their bets on disappointing macroeconomic data and weak trend in Asian markets.

Moreover, lower-than-expected January-March earnings posted by the country's second-largest software services company Infosys also dampened trading sentiment.

Come May 1, petrol and diesel prices will change every day in sync with international rates, much like what happens in most advanced markets.

State-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL), which own over 95 per cent of nearly 58,000 petrol pumps in the country, will launch a pilot for daily price revision in five select cities from May 1 and gradually extend it to all over the country.

Infosys, while announcing its Q4FY17 results, made changes to its capital allocation policy. Starting FY18, it will use 70% of its free cash flows for paying dividends or buying back shares. That apart, the Board has decided to pay Rs 13,000 crore to shareholders by way of dividend or buyback during FY18, subject to necessary approvals.

Market, analysts say, had been expecting a significant buyback and capital allocation strategy, and any announcement related to these would be important from stock price perspective. While most agree that the move is a step in the right direction, the amount allocated towards this could have been higher.

The Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims to be southern Tibet, will complicate the Sino-Indian border row, a Chinese commentator warned on Wednesday.

In an op-ed piece in China Daily, Xi Rao, a Beijing-based expert on international studies, said the Dalai Lama was only causing "trouble ... for the settlement of China-India border issues, regional peace".

New Delhi: Solar power tariff discovered through auctions hit a new low on Wednesday with NTPC Ltd’s 250 mega watt (MW) project at Kadapa in south-central Andhra Pradesh getting awarded for a flat Rs3.15 per unit.

The project was awarded to the Indian arm of French clean energy firm Solairedirect SA, said an NTPC official, who asked not to be named. Solairedirect Energy India Pvt. Ltd already has 182 MW of projects in India including 97 MW in operation and 85MW under construction.

Mumbai: A committee set up by India’s stock market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), to encourage investments in so-called alternative investment funds (AIF), which invest in start-ups and other young companies, will likely recommend a lower investment threshold for accredited investors, said two people familiar with the discussions of the group.

The people, who asked not to be identified, said the committee would also recommend anonymized disclosure norms which, while providing adequate information to potential investors, do not involve sharing details of specific exits (the sale of an investment).

In line with the reduction of interest rates in the market Air India, burdened with a neck-high debt of over Rs 46,000 crore, has asked 16 of its lenders to cut down the interest rates by as much as 2 percent in a letter. In order to settle its debt, the airline is also in talks with the Ministry of External Affairs and also with a state-owned infrastructure company NBCC to generate money by selling off 98 of its properties, some of which are in India and some are overseas.

Withdrawal of service charges on rail ticketing, while helping promote digital transactions after demonetisation, may derail the proposed listing of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) in the current financial year, sources told FE. However, sources said, preparation for listing of two other railway PSUs —Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) and IRCON — are well on course and their IPOs are expected to hit the market by September.

Indian shares fell on Wednesday, heading for the fourth session of fall in five, as investors exercised caution ahead of the start of the earnings season, while sentiment was also hit by geopolitical concerns. After hitting a record high of 9,273.90 points last week, the broader NSE index has fallen about 0.9 percent as investors wait for corporate results, with Infosys Ltd due to report on Thursday.

Global markets have also been under pressure over North Korea and Syria tensions, further sapping sentiment.

Shares of Karnataka Bank slumped nearly 3 per cent today after top private lender ICICI Bank clarified that almost all shares held by it in the company were on behalf of equity broker clients as security. The clarification came a day after Karnataka Bank saw its shares soar by nearly 9 per cent yesterday following its latest shareholding data showing ICICI Bank holding over 1 per cent stake in the company.

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