Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is investigating an unusual rise in the stocks of Cairn India Ltd and Vedanta Ltd during the run-up to the announcement of revised terms for their merger on 22 July, two people with direct knowledge of the matter, including a Sebi official, said on condition of anonymity.

The regulator is checking if any entity made illegitimate gains by trading in these two stocks on the basis of any privileged, unpublished price-sensitive information about the fresh merger terms before they were publicly announced, they added.

Three months after State Bank of India (SBI) announced the merger of its five associate banks with itself, investors who took a large helping of their shares seem to have celebrated too soon.

The SBI stock itself has gained 39%, while shares of its listed associates have surged 26-43% ever since the merger was announced. On the face of it, the merger looks sound. The country’s largest lender will become cost-efficient even as it fattens itself to compete with world-ranking large banks.

Gammon India shares surged over 16 per cent on Thursday after the infrastructure company bagged a civil Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) order worth Rs 869.99 crore from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for widening of a highway in Karnataka under NHDP. The project Gammon India has won is for four laning of Hospet – Bellary – Karnataka / AP Border from Km.280.080 (Design Ch.) to Km.375.450 (Design Ch.), design length 98.370, NH-63 in the State of Karnataka under NHDP Phase-IVB on EPC mode.

Showing extraordinary fighting spirit, woman wrestler Sakshi Malik ended India's frustrating medal drought with a dramatic bronze-winning effort on day 12 of the Rio Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The entire country is talking about her, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is proud of her.

Markets continued to trade firm in late noon trades as gains in financials are offsetting losses amid profit taking at higher levels.

At 2pm , the S&P BSE Sensex rose 168 points at 28,173 and the Nifty50 was up 60 points at 8,684. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.6%-1% each.

Reliance Communications (RCom) on Wednesday announced the introduction of "Next-Gen app-to-app calling in the country and worldwide". The offer launched by the company has been billed as 'Calling Ka Naya Tareeka' and in this introductory offer it is offering 300 minutes of app-to-app calling for Rs 39.

The company said that the app-to-app calling experience, which is not a novelty for Indian consumers, will be better on its LTE network in the 850 MHz band, and therefore, will provide unparalleled experience.

Three people were killed and 40 more wounded today in a car bomb attack in Turkey's eastern city of Van carried out by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, a local official said.

The attack targeted a police headquarters in the central Ipekyolu district of Van city, Van deputy governor Mehmet Parlak was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency, blaming the "regional terror group", the official phrase for the PKK.

Government has slapped an additional penalty of $380 million (around Rs 2,500 crore) on Reliance Industries and its partners for producing less than targeted natural gas from eastern offshore KG-D6 fields.

With this, the total penalty, which is in form of disallowing recovery of cost incurred, for missing the target in five financial years beginning April 1, 2010, now stands at a cumulative $2.76 billion.

Less than a year after the coal industry was declared to be in terminal decline, the fossil fuel has staged its steepest price rally in over half a decade, making it one of the hottest major commodities.

Cargo prices for Australian thermal coal from its Newcastle terminal, seen as the Asian benchmark, have soared over 35 percent since mid-June to more than one-year highs of almost $70 a tonne, pushed by surprise increases in Chinese imports.

Tata Motors shares were trading higher in the afternoon trade on Wednesday after the company informed bourses that rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) upgraded the long-term corporate rating of Tata Motors to ‘BB+’ from ‘BB’ earlier with stable outlook. At 2.42 am, shares of the auto major were trading 0.42 per cent up at Rs 509.05. The scrip opened the day at Rs 511.90 and has touched a high and low of Rs 514.35 and Rs 506.40, respectively, in trade so far.

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.