Mumbai: Tata Motors Ltd, replying to a clarification sought by stock exchanges on a letter written by Cyrus Mistry to the directors of Tata Sons Ltd, has defended and clarified credit and accounting practices related to the Nano car and Tata Motors Finance, its vehicle finance arm.

Mistry, the ousted chairman of Tata Sons, wrote in the leaked letter, “Before 2013, in order to shore up sales and market share, Tata Motors Finance extended credit with lax risk assessment. As a result, NPAs mounted in excess of Rs4,000 crore.”

PNB Housing Finance, which recently closed its initial public offer (IPO), will make its stock market debut on Monday.

The Rs 3,000-crore IPO was oversubscribed 29.55 times during October 25-27.

Results were marginally ahead of estimates on better margins due to tight control on costs. PAT beat was boosted by higher other income on account of mark-to-market of fixed maturity products because of fall in interest rates. Management believes that festive season is muted with single-digit growth for the motorcycle industry.

It expects H2 to be better for Bajaj than H1 because of new launches (Pulsar, VS400 and V cousin). On 3W, it expects to meet its target in the domestic market and continue outgrowing the industry on entry into the cargo space. Whilst not explicitly stated, management commentary seemed to suggest exports to Africa now are a medium-term issue.

The government has sought $1.55 billion (nearly Rs 10311.76 crore) from Reliance Industries and its partners for drawing natural gas belonging to state-owned ONGC in the KG basin over the last seven years.

The Oil Ministry has sent a notice to RIL seeking $1.55 billion compensation, sources privy to the development said.

State-owned BPCL has received green nod to set up additional facilities at its Kochi refinery to meet the BS-VI quality auto fuel norms and establish new MS block, which will entail an investment of Rs 3,313 crore.

As per Auto Fuel Policy 2025, the government has laid down a roadmap for complete transition to Bharat Stage (BS)-VI auto fuel by April 2020 in the country.

Shares of cigarette makers such as ITC, Godfrey Phillips India and VST Industries rallied by up to 7% on BSE in early morning trade after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council's propose to place tobacco products in the 28% tax slab and an additional cess.

The current rate of taxation on cigarettes is around 64% and 81% on chewing tobacco.

Key benchmark indices continue to trade lower weighed down by pharma shares. At 13:05 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 79 points or 0.3% to 27,351. The Nifty 50 index was currently down 34 points or 0.4% at 8,450.

The Sensex and the Nifty recovered after hitting hit their lowest intraday levels in almost four months in early afternoon trade. The Sensex fell 130.26 points, or 0.47% at the day's low of 27,300.02 in early afternoon trade, its lowest level since 8 July 2016.

Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp will invest about 100 billion yen ($970.97 million) in a second vehicle production line at its new plant in Gujarat, even before operations have begun, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.

The second line could debut in early 2019, the report said, and will manufacture the same yearly volume as the first production line, which is slated to debut in 2017.

The government plans to offload up to three per cent stake in Larsen & Toubro (L&T) held under Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (Suuti) through a block deal on Friday, said investment banking sources.

The base price for the share sale has been set at Rs 1,415.66, about two per cent discount to L&T's closing price of Rs 1,445 on Thursday. The government will be able to mop up around Rs 4,000 crore through the transaction. Suuti owns around 8.32 per cent stake in L&T. Besides L&T, Suuti owns around 11 per cent each in ITC and Axis Bank.

Software lobby group National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) said it was yet to get clarity on the rates for IT products but cautioned that the bigger challenge for the sector would be the implementation of the goods and services tax.

“The industry is looking at a rate of 12-16 per cent. So, it entirely depends on how it gets. But, the bigger concern is how the GST is applied,” said R Chandrashekhar, president of Nasscom.

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