Microsoft has announced plans for a celebratory debut this month of Windows 10 operating software designed to spread the US software titan's offerings across a broad range of devices.

Word that Windows 10 would be welcomed in grand style came less than a week yesterday after Microsoft said it will cut 7,800 jobs and write down the value of its struggling mobile phone division acquired last year from Nokia by some $7.6 billion.

Markets have recovered from the lower levels and are trading marginally positive led by pharma shares. However, the upside is capped due to selling among index heavyweights like Tata Motors, RIL and HDFC.

At 10:40AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 11 points at 27,972 and the 50-share Nifty was up 2 points at 8,462.

Reliance Industries, for a change, has outperformed the broader markets, rebounding from its closing lows of Rs 810 at the end of March 2015 to Rs 1,007 now. Jio’s launch might have helped, but not so much to boost the stock by 24% in less than four months.

While strong gross refining margins (GRM’s) had led to the initial spike despite weak crude prices, investments in core business that will likely boost earnings in another 18 months has given analysts a reason to turn bullish.

Indicating the polarisation of the stock market, country largest FMCG maker ITC is now trading at an all-time high discount to its smaller peers in the benchmark Nifty. Hindustan Unilever (HUL) and Asian Paints are now trading at more than twice the price to earnings multiples of ITC. The tobacco to FMCG major is now trading at 26x its net profits in the trailing 12-months. In comparison, HUL now commands a valuation ratio of 53.5x while Asian Paints has become one of the most expensive stocks in the index with a price-earnings multiple of 55x. (See the chart).

SBI Mutual Fund has cut its stake by 3 per cent in Vijay Mallya-led McDowell Holdings to 5.77 per cent.

SBI Mutual Fund, which had 8.77 per cent earlier, brought down its shareholding in the company to 5.77 per cent, McDowell Holdings said in a filing to BSE.

Ajoy Mukherjee, executive VP and global head, HR at India’s largest IT services provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is undertaking a mammoth task of training one-third of its employees or 100,000 people on digital technologies.

The need and reason is obvious. With close to 12.5% revenue of the $15.5 billion company coming from the digital space (that represents close to $2 billion), having trained set of skills is a necessity.

SAIF Partners, the VC firm worth $4 billion under management has announced the appointment of Alok Goel as the Managing Director. Alok was previously heading FreeCharge.in as the CEO and was the COO of redBus.in prior to that. He is well-known in the industry for closing two of the biggest M&A in the Indian internet ecosystem with the acquisition of Freecharge by Snapdeal and redBus by Naspers. At SAIF Partners, Alok will supervise early stage investments.

To offer convenience to customers, Uber has started accepting credit card payments in India again after it was forced by local legislation to switch to a mobile wallet payment system last November.

This payment option shall be rendered in partnership with MobiKwik, along with support for debit cards.

Government is meeting stiff resistance in its drive to make the buying of gold jewellery more transparent and to channel demand into paper gold to stop the metal being used to hide billions of dollars of undeclared ‘black money’.

The jewellery trade says the Narendra Modi government’s plans to trace gold deals is unworkable and won’t deter holders of black money, or hundreds of millions of Indians outside the tax net, from buying gold to keep their wealth away from the prying eyes of the authorities.

The BSE Sensex has turned flat after opening over 120 points up in morning trade on Monday. Sensex had surged by nearly 130 points in early trade on continued buying by investors amid hopes of rate cut by the Reserve Bank after weak IIP numbers. Nifty recaptured the 8,400-mark by rising 44.25 points, or 0.52 per cent, at 8,404.80.

At 10.13 am, Sensex was up 13.92 points at 27,675.32. Similarly, Nifty was up 4.45 points at 8,365.00 during the same time.

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