Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Thursday strengthened against the US dollar, after the Rajya Sabha passed the Constitution amendment bill for the goods and services tax (GST). Traders are cautious ahead of non-farm payrolls data on Friday.

The home currency closed at 66.92 a dollar, up 0.11% from its previous close of 66.99. The rupee opened at 66.85 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 66.85 and 66.99, respectively.

Software giant Microsoft will host the maiden edition of its Machine Learning and Data Sciences Conference in India this year, highlighting importance of the Indian market in terms of future deployment of these new emerging technologies.

The 2-day event, to be held in Bengaluru on August 8-9, is expected to see participation from over 600 people, including government officials, start-ups, developers, students and industry executives.

Shares of automobiles companies were trading higher by up to 4% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in an otherwise subdued market after the Rajya Sabha passed the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Constitutional Amendment Bill.

Tata Motors (up 4% at Rs 496), Hero MotoCorp (2% at Rs 3,293), Bajaj Auto (2% at Rs 2,766), Ashok Leyland (1% at Rs 86.70), Maruti Suzuki India (1% at Rs 4,922) were up in the range of 1%-4% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

State-owned CIL is looking at entering into a pact with a South African government miner to jointly acquire coal mines in that country.

"Coal India Ltd (CIL) is further considering signing of an MoU with a mining company owned by the government of South Africa to jointly undertake identification, acquisition and operation of coal assets in South Africa," Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal informed the Lok Sabha.

MUMBAI: In a highly volatile trading session, the BSE Sensex dipped over 60 points after surging by more than 224 points in early morning trade with markets showing signs of uncertainly after the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the historic GST bill.

Selling was seen in consumer durables, oil&gas, banking, FMCG, teck and IT sector stocks, dragged the down key indices.

Mumbai: The state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) would soon begin selling financial products, insurance and remittances from its fuel retail outlets along with its partner Fino Paytech.

BPCL brought 21% stake in Fino Paytech, a payments bank, for Rs.251 crore last week.

While Indian IT industry body Nasscom said that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill is a welcome move, it has also voiced some concerns on the GST Model Law. Nasscom has suggested certain changes to the finance ministry on self-declaration procedures, instead of multiple paper-work for registrations by the IT companies for ease of doing business.

State Bank India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, will draft a circle-wise plan to rationalise the group’s branch network. The plan, which includes relocation of bank branches, is in view of the proposed merger of associate banks with SBI.

Work on this rationalisation had begun about a year ago, even before the merger decisions were taken. The expansion of alternate platforms, including digital banking channels, has made SBI rethink on the location of branches.

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) may launch its 4G services during the next financial year, based on the outcome of a tender to upgrade its network for such services, Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

However, the telecom PSU does not intend to participate in the upcoming spectrum auctions for 4G due to financial and other reasons, Minister of State for Communications Manoj Sinha said in a written reply.

State Bank of India (SBI) will offer overdraft facility to nearly 7,00,000 account holders enrolled under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). The bank has opened nearly 100 million accounts under PMJDY so far.

"We are looking at the transactions of the accounts under PMJDY, and gauging the number of accounts which can be provided overdraft facility.

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