India’s stock markets fell on Wednesday after the Reserve Bank of India kept key policy rates unchanged, with the repo rate at 6.25%, against expectations, and toughened the policy stance to ‘neutral’ from ‘accomodative’.

BSE Sensex was down 0.59% to 28,169.35 points, while NSE Nifty was down 0.39% at 8733.9 points, after remaining lacklustre for most of the trading session earlier ahead of the monetary policy review.

The stock of consumer goods and cigarettes maker ITC jumped as much as 5.6% intraday on Tuesday before ending with marginal gains after the government sold a 2% stake in the company held via Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI) in three block deals.

With this, the government holding in ITC through SUUTI has come down to 9.17%. The government’s stake sale comes at a time when ITC’s shares are trading at lifetime highs, having gained 14.6% since the beginning of 2017.

MUMBAI: Private sector lender HDFC Bank said that it has gone live on Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) for HDFC Bank’s Net Banking for customers.

BBPS is a centralized system created by National Payments Corporation of India involving banks and non-banks, which allows agents to access bill payments services in an interoperable manner. Customers can now pay their utility bills like electricity, gas and water bills instantly without registering the biller.

NEW DELHI: The Nifty50 came under pressure around its crucial resistance level of 8,800 on Tuesday, but the momentum is still on the upside and there was plenty of action in individual stocks.

While the S&P BSE Sensex slipped nearly 100 points on Tuesday, over 200 stocks on BSE and nearly 100 stocks on NSE generated buy signals on the technical charts based on ‘Stochastics Oscillators’.

NEW DELHI: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has awarded a contract worth Rs 1,000 crore to a Larsen & Toubroled consortium to set up more than 35,000 public Wi-Fi hotspots by March 2018. “We have decided to roll out phase through our own capex (capital expenditure) model to deploy 35,500 Wi-Fi hotspots across the country by March 2018,” BSNL Chairman Anupam Shrivastava told ET.

The government’s plan of listing Air India is an alternative which has come about after repeated failures in securing a strategic buyer for the airline. On Wednesday, Mint reported that the government is looking at a three-step plan to corporatise the beleaguered state-owned airline.

The first step is to get the banks to recast the airline’s working capital loan into equity by a consortium of lenders. Followed by appointing professionals to run the airline. The last step being its listing in the bourses.

To add value to its existing clinics, health care giant Apollo Hospitals is planning to ramp up facilities in a year. It will draw up a list of retail health care outlets primarily in the Tier-II and -III cities.

Speaking to Business Standard, Sangita Reddy, joint managing director, said, “We plan to add MRI facility in Karimnagar retail outlet, among other centres.” Other centres in Karaikudi, Nellore and Bhubaneswar are also up for value addition. “The company plans to add radiotherapy in its Vizag and Bhubaneswar units,” Chief Financial Officer Krishnan Akhileshwaran told Business Standard.

Founders of Infosys have flagged concerns over transparency and corporate governance at second-largest software exporter in the country. They have questioned the compensation package of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vishal Sikka and the severance package to its former chief compliance officer David Kennedy.

The founders, led by N R Narayana Murthy, have asked how the company would achieve the $20-billion target by 2020, as set by Sikka, in an uncertain global environment, said sources. Last month, Murthy, Nandan Nilekani and Kris Gopalakrishnan raised their concerns with the board.

Having reported an operating profit of Rs 105 crore for 2015-16 fiscal, Air India is expected to post an improved operating profit margin this year as well, even as liquidity constraints continue to impact the smooth performance of the national carrier, the government said on Tuesday.

Air India, over the years and especially since the implementation of the turnaround plan, has been constantly improving its operational as well as financial performance, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

State-run engineering major BHEL today posted a net profit of Rs 93.54 crore for the quarter ended on December 31, 2016, on the back of higher income from power segment. The company had reported a net loss of Rs 1,084.96 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015. Total income increased to Rs 6,461.22 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, from Rs 5,498.07 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015, BHEL said in a BSE filing.

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