MUMBAI: Market benchmark BSE Sensex tanked over 238 points in early trade on Friday as investors cut down their bets after industrial production in March plunged to 0.1% and retail inflation jumped to 5.39% in April.

A weak trend on other Asian bourses, tracking overnight losses in the US and European markets, also weighed on the trading sentiment here, brokers said.

Apple made the bombshell announcement today that it has invested $1 billion in China’s top ride hailing app. Didi Chuxing (formerly called Didi Kuaidi) is often described in U.S. media as Uber’s Chinese rival, but it already dominates the market by far. The company claims it fulfilled one billion rides last year and holds 87 percent of the country’s private ride-hailing market.

Infosys Ltd’s embrace of automation and artificial intelligence technologies to boost employee productivity is taking longer than expected.

India’s second-largest software services exporter now expects the related productivity boost to reflect in a meaningful way only from April 2017.

Acting upon recommendations of the Special Investigation Team on black money, market watchdog Sebi plans to tighten due diligence requirements for issuance and transfer of controversy-ridden P-Notes and put the onus on investors to ensure compliance with anti-money laundering law.

While Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) has been of the view that the regulations have already been strengthened to check any misuse of this route for money laundering like activities, it has decided to put in place additional safeguards as suggested by the SIT.

Leading bourse the National Stock Exchange (NSE) will auction investment limits for overseas investors on May 16, for purchase of government debt securities worth Rs 3,340 crore.

The auction will be conducted on NSE’s ebid platform from 1530 hours to 1730 hours, after the close of market hours, the exchange said in a circular today.

NEW DELHI: Switching into expansion mode, the Air India Group has decided to add 100 planes to its current fleet of 132 in the next four years. All airlines within the group — parent AI, AI Express and Alliance Air — will get more aircraft under the plan. This time the airline will opt for leasing, unlike the 111-aircraft order of UPA-I when planes were bought.

"By March 31, 2020, AI group will have 232 planes. While nine aircraft (six Boeing 787s and three B-777) are from the previous order (of 111 planes), the rest will be new orders for leasing planes. We are going to grow aggressively and fight for leadership across segments," AI chairman Ashwani Lohani told TOI.

ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private sector lender, is looking at consolidating its position in the overseas market by shrinking its equity investment in its subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and Canada. The lender has significantly reduced its equity stake in both these subsidiaries from 11.8 per cent at the end of March 31, 2010, to 4.8 per cent at the end of FY16.

At the end of the quarter ended March, in rupee terms, the net advances of the overseas branches also decreased by 0.3 per cent, whereas in US dollar terms, the net advances decreased six per cent.

State-owned CIL will this month hold the second phase of special e-auction for the current financial year for providing coal to power plants as the government’s targets 24X7 power supply across the country.

“The special forward e-auction for 2016-17 for power producers-Phase II will be conducted as per the terms and conditions followed for Special Forward E auction for 2016-17 Phase I and as per the scheme of Special Forward E Auction for power producers,” an official said.

NEW DELHI: Utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra today launched a more powerful variant of its compact SUV TUV300 priced at Rs 8.87 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai).

The new variant, which comes with all new mHAWK 100 engine, delivers a power of 100 BHP and will be available in the top-end variants of T8 and T8 AMT trims of the TUV300.

MUMBAI: Reliance Industries has started handing out increments and bonuses to its 20,000 employees with junior & middle managers receiving raises of 8-10%. Letters were issued to these employees on Friday, while senior managers will receive theirs along with variable pay this week.

RIL had reported a net profit of Rs 7,398 crore in the March quarter, the highest in eight years. It paid 100% of variable pay or annual cash bonus (ACB) to junior and middle managers.

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