The benchmark BSE Sensex slipped over 80 points in late morning trade today as participants booked profits after two sessions of gains amid sustained capital outflows and a weak trend at other Asian markets.

At 11:30 am, BSE Sensex traded 81.62 points low to 26504.93. NSE Nifty lost 28.95 points to 7984.95.

Shares of Reliance Communications today rose nearly 3 per cent after the company said it’s in talks to buy Russia-based Sistema’s Indian arm to consolidate its position as the nation’s fourth-largest telecom player.

The stock moved up 2.97 per cent to Rs 60.60 on BSE.

MUMBAI: Some of the bulge-bracket global investors are betting on India's affordable housing story with the country's leading mortgage lender HDFC rolling out its $1-billion offshore fund to finance such projects.

The world's second largest sovereign wealth fund the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), is one of the investors, according to two persons close to the development.

A Jaguar fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) crashed while on a routine sortie, the second such incident this year.

Both the pilots had ejected, IAF officials said, adding efforts were on to find them.

Buying a house may soon become costlier in the national capital as the AAP government is contemplating to increase circle rate for flats of group housing societies and DDA by around 100%.

The revenue department of the city's government has prepared a proposal which also favours to increase circle rate on agriculture land and farmhouses by up to 100% and 150% respectively.

Shares of Biocon were trading higher by 2% at Rs 457 on the BSE in early morning trade after Syngene International, research arm of biotechnology major, has received Securities Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) approval to launch an initial public offer (IPO).

As per the draft papers, Syngene International plans to sell 22 million equity shares, including reservation of up to two million shares for Biocon shareholders, through an offer for sale, the PTI report suggests.

Shares of oil marketing companies (OMCs) were in focus and trading higher on the bourses in otherwise subdued market after these companies announced Rs 0.64 a litre increase in petrol prices and a Rs 1.35 per litre cut in diesel prices to align the domestic rates with global price benchmarks.

At 0953 hours, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) was up 2.3% at Rs 710, also its 52-week high on the BSE. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) up 2% at Rs 361 and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) up 1.6% at Rs 847.

State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, on Monday paid Rs 1,290 crore as advance tax for the first quarter of the current financial year, a rise of four per cent over the same period last year.

“We have paid Rs 1,290 crore as against Rs 1,240 crore (in the first quarter of the last financial year),” a bank official, who declined to be identified, said.

The Mahindra Group on Monday clinched a multi-million dollar aerospace contract with European consortium Airbus at the Paris Air Show, marking a major milestone in the Make-in-India initiative.

Mahindra Group subsidiary Mahindra Aerospace bagged the multi-year aero-components manufacture and supply contract.

First it was the textile business. Then came petrochemicals and then oil & gas. Now, retail and telecom are the trend. Reliance Industries (RIL), India's largest private sector company, has been changing its own focus to keep pace with the changing times.

“We don’t want be called a lala (traditional family-managed) company. Every five-to-six years, one has to re-discover. If we don’t, we will be lagging behind. Had RIL been a textile company even now, it would have perished like many other textile players have,” said an RIL official.

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