MUMBAI: Key benchmark indices extended their losses, with the Sensex falling 294 points and the Nifty 69 points, weighed down by sustained selling mainly in IT and technology.

The BSE Sensex opened higher before quoting at 24,499.57 at 12:21pm, down 294.39 points or 1.19 per cent.

New Delhi: Ashok Leyland Ltd, India’s second-largest truck maker by sales, is planning to wrap up 23 of its 27 joint ventures in a bid to cut its debt and focus on core businesses, a top company executive said.

“What’s the point of having a joint venture if you are losing money in it? And we have too many of them. We plan to wrap up 23 of 27 joint ventures in the near term as the company plans to focus on its core business,” the Ashok Leyland executive said on condition of anonymity.

India's workhorse satellite launch vehicle PSLV-C32, on Thursday, succesfully put India's sixth navigation satellite IRNSS-1F into orbit.

The IRNSS-1F was launched into a sub-Geosynchronous transfer orbit with a 284-km perigee (nearest point to Earth) and 20,657-km apogee (farthest point to Earth), according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The shares of Infosys, India’s second largest IT services exporter slipped by as much as 3 per cent in early Thursday trade following the two co-founders coming under the promoter category, S Gopalakrishnan and S D Shibulal deciding to sell 75 lakh shares through multiple block deals.

The 75 lakh shares representing 0.3 per cent stake in Infosys were offered in the price range of Rs 1149-1178.5 and the transaction will be carried out during the day. The Infosys scrip opened at Rs 1164 on Thursday on Bombay Stock Exchange and has slipped by as much as Rs 33.10 recording a fall of 2.8%.

NEW DELHI: The state-owned power equipment maker BHEL today said it has commissioned a 500-mw unit at Anpara-D thermal power plant in Uttar Pradesh.

"Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has achieved yet another landmark in the power development programme... by successfully commissioning the second 500-mw thermal unit at Anpara-D thermal power plant (TPP) in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh," the company said in a statement.

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet today decided to revert to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) the Ratna and R-series oil and gas fields, off the Mumbai coast, which were previously awarded to Essar Oil but the contract could not be signed.

The Ratna and R-series oil fields, 130-km off the Mumbai coast, hold an estimated 87 million barrels of oil and 1.2 billion cubic metres of gas reserves.

The ninth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament, which begins after the ongoing ICC T-20 World Cup concludes next month, is expected to get Sony Pictures Network (SPN, earlier called Multi Screen Media India), the tournament's official broadcaster, close to Rs 1,100 crore in advertising revenue.

Rohit Gupta, president, network sales, at SPN, told this newspaper they'd managed to sell most of the inventory despite hiking ad rates.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has disposed of insider trading proceedings against Reliance Petroinvestments, a group company of the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries.

The case date backs to 2007, before the merger of Indian Petrochemicals Corporation (IPCL) with Reliance Industries. A Sebi order in May 2013 had charged Reliance Petroinvestments with insider trading and imposed a penalty of Rs 11 crore on it.

Axis Bank is going the start-up way and giving employees flexible roles and a flexible work environment.

Rajesh K Dahiya, group executive of the country's third largest private sector lender, said from the next financial year, the bank was planning to revise the definition of employment in a bank.

State-run telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has an outstanding debt of Rs 7,667 crore, as on January 31. On the other hand, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) has an outstanding debt of Rs 13,530 crore, as of end-February, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

“BSNL’s debt is mainly due to its capital expenditure requirement. This requirement started in June 2010 after the payment of BWA and 3G spectrum charges to the tune of Rs 18,500 crore to the government,” Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

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