Mumbai: Retail investors on Wednesday showed little interest in the government’s Rs.5,000 crore share sale in power producer NTPC Ltd, subscribing to less than half the shares reserved for them on the second of the two-day offering.

Of the total 82.45 million shares on offer, retail investors placed bids for 36.36 million shares, stock exchange data showed. In all, 632.57 million shares were bid during the two-day offer for sale against the total size of 412.27 million shares.

New Delhi: Infosys Ltd’s board on Wednesday decided to extend Vishal Sikka’s tenure as chief executive officer (CEO) by two years to 2021, crediting him with putting India’s second largest software services firm back on the growth path.

The extension gives Sikka, who took over as Infosys’s first non-founder CEO in August 2014, a chance to steer Bengaluru-based Infosys towards its 2020 goal of becoming a $20 billion company by annual revenue.

The rupee rose by 7 paise to 68.50 against the dollar in early trade on Thursday at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on fresh selling of the U.S. currency by banks and exporters.

Forex dealers said a higher opening in the domestic equity market and a weakening dollar against other currencies overseas supported the rupee. On Wednesday, the rupee had ended almost flat as it gained one paisa to 68.57 following fag-end selling of the American currency by banks and exporters.

In an unconventional move, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will meet economists and market experts on Saturday, barely 48 hours ahead of his Budget speech on Monday. Minister of State Jayant Sinha and other key Finance Ministry officials will be part of the meeting, sources said.

While the agenda is under wraps, it is learnt that the Finance Ministry sent out invitations over email on Tuesday for the 90-minute meeting that is scheduled to start at 11 am.

In our Q3FY16 result review note, we mentioned that the total outstanding 5/25 cases for PNB amount to Rs 10,000 crore. The management clarified that the same is Rs 6,800 crore pertaining to 13 accounts, out of which cases amounting to Rs 30-40 billion have already been classified as NPA. The SDR cases undertaken by the bank amount to Rs 7,000 crore, also in 13 accounts. Out of this, Rs 758 crore has already been classified as NPA, Rs 5,600 crore worth cases have come from the standard restructured book, while the balance Rs 700 crore is from the standard book.

L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering Limited (LTHE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro (L&T), has signed a long-term agreement with McDermott International - the US-based engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and installation company - focused on subsea projects in deepwater segment emerging on the east coast of India.

Under the agreement, L&T Hydrocarbon and McDermott will develop a cost-effective approach which will utilise LTHE’s strategically located Kattupalli facility near Chennai for fabrication and setting up of a local spool base in India.

The government is working to increase coal production by Coal India Ltd to 1,000 million tonne in the next four years through the use of latest environment-friendly technology, Lok Sabha was informed today.

The estimated production planned by CIL during 2019-20 is 908.10 million tonne and there are plans to raise it upto 1,000 million tonne, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said while responding to supplementaries during Question Hour.

Continuing its streak of partnering with innovative start-up ventures, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has tied up with OYO Rooms to offer standardized accommodation and a convenient booking platform to rail travelers.

The partnership with India's largest branded network of hotels symbolizes the growing leverage of synergies between the government and homegrown Indian businesses to drive the next wave of innovation.

Five companies - ITC, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), Cipla, ICICI Bank and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) - from the 30 share Sensex hit their respective 52-week lows on the BSE in intra-day trade today.

At 01:55 PM, the S&P BSE Sensex was down nearly 1% or 207 points at 23,203, fallen nearly 600 points in past two trading sessions on continues selling of equities by foreign investors.

Tata Motors, which lost its pole position in the light commercial vehicle segment to Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) in the first eight months of the fiscal year, has reclaimed its place over the past two months. The company sold more LCVs than its nearest competitor in December 2015 and January 2016.

On a cumulative basis, however, M&M remains the segment leader for the April-January period of the ongoing financial year, data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) shows.

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