Mumbai: The benchmark Sensex on Monday recorded its first drop in three sessions after fluctuations for better part of the session, falling over 49 points as caution prevailed ahead of derivatives expiry during a holiday-shortened week. Furthermore, a weak closing in Asia, subdued commodity prices on the back of a rising dollar and concerns over Chinese demand and a lower opening in European markets kept investors on edge.

Chennai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday ordered the immediate release of Rs.940 crore towards relief and restoration work in Tamil Nadu, which faced extensive damage to life and property in the northeast monsoon.

Modi, who is in Malaysia to attend the East Asia Summit, was acting on a request for Rs.2,000 crore aid sought by Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa on Monday. The state government has pegged the losses at Rs.8,481 crore.

In a positive development for ONGC Videsh Ltd, the Mozambique government has agreed to offer cost-recovery rights to production and development of its gas field and the LNG terminal in the African nation. Gas from the field is meant for exports and is expected to boost OVL’s revenue and bottom-line in the coming years.

Narendra K Verma, managing director of OVL told FE, “The Mozambique Parliament has recently approved a new law, which allows cost-recovery for both the oil field and the (LNG) terminal.”

Air India has mopped up Rs 7,000 crore by selling nine of its 21 Dreamliner planes to a Singaporean lessor, which it has taken back on lease from the company under an SLB arrangement.

A major chunk of these funds will go into repayment of the bridge loan availed earlier for purchasing these Boeing 787-800s, airline sources said.

The Telecom Ministry has issued notices to state-owned BSNL, MTNL and India Post after Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad personally took note of citizen complaints over service quality on social media since July.

Prasad, who has over 4.65 lakh followers on Facebook, received the complaints relating to the three departments under his ministry.

PNB Housing Finance Ltd, promoted by Punjab National Bank, will raise $75 million from International Finance Corporation (IFC). The investment will be done by subscription to a secured fixed/floating rate non-covertible debenture (NCD) issued by the company.

The funds will be used to finance construction of green residential apartments/buildings that are certified by recognised green building certification standards, including EDGE (certification programme developed by IFC), IFC said.

Extending its overseas footprint, Axis Bank today opened a representative office in Dhaka, capital city of Bangladesh.

Indo-Bangladesh trade is growing and opening office in Dhaka would help in leveraging the opportunity, Axis Bank group executive, (corporate relationship group & international business) P Mukherjee said.

After a protracted legal battle, State Bank of India (SBI) has declared industrialist Vijay Mallya a 'wilful defaulter' for defaults on nearly Rs 7,000 crore loans to the long-grounded Kingfisher Airlines.

"SBI has declared Mallya, Kingfisher Airlines and its holding company United Breweries Holdings as wilful defaulters," sources told PTI.

Amid a slowing market for light commercial vehicles (LCVs), Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has managed to go past Tata Motors and take the top position. While the domestic LCV market has shrunk over five per cent this year, M&M has been able to gain market share. Tata Motors, earlier the market leader, has taken deep cuts, especially in the goods carrier LCV segment.

Washington/New Delhi: Despite a much-heralded fresh start in US-India ties under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a diplomatic source said on Friday the United States has run into problems arranging visits by two senior officials, recalling a diplomatic spat that soured relations two years ago.

Washington has been seeking to send Susan Coppedge, its newly appointed anti-people trafficking ambassador, and Randy Berry, its special envoy for LGBT rights, to New Delhi this month.

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