Mumbai: Air India Ltd, the country’s largest airline by fleet size, is expected to post a small operating profit in the year starting 1 April, in a first sign that the ailing national carrier is beginning to turn around.

Most of the national flag airline’s units, including its ground-handling business, regional airline operations and international low-fare services, are also expected to post net profit for the next financial year, according to Air India’s budget estimates for the next financial year.

The benchmark BSE Sensex rose over 87 points today as stocks of healthcare, IT and realty sectors saw heavy buying on covering-up of short positions by speculators ahead of tomorrow’s monthly expiry in derivatives segment amid a mixed trend at other Asian bourses.

The 30-share index, which had lost 574.66 points in the previous five consecutive sessions, gained 87.88 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 28,249.60.

BENGALURU: Top software service exporters are under pressure to drop prices to retain contracts with marquee customers such as American Express and Home Depot that are up for renewal this year, according to executives and experts involved in the contract negotiations.

Rates have fallen by double digits for some of the biggest customer accounts in the past six months, with companies such as Infosys and Wipro sacrificing profit margins to gain market share and incremental revenue from these key accounts, they said. Retaining strategic outsourcing contracts - that generate at least $100 million annually - is crucial to top IT firms such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro for them to be to mine such accounts that could increase in scope over the years.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) on Tuesday announced a sale of its entire 10 per cent stake in Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) to the GMR group for Rs 492 crore. It said having a minority share did not give it any influence over the venture.

DIAL was set up in 2006 as a joint venture of the GMR group (54 per cent stake), the Airports Authority of India, or AAI (26 per cent), and two foreign partners - Fraport AG and MAHB, 10 per cent stake each.

An Airbus A320 plane crashed today in the southern French Alps, security sources said.

One of the sources said the plane belonged to Germanwings, an affiliate of German airline Lufthansa, travelling between Barcelona and Dusseldorf. There were 142 passengers and six crew members onboard.

French President Francois Hollande says all are feared dead.

Essar Power MP limited, a subsidiary of Essar Power, signed the Coal Mine Development and Production Agreement with the government for the Tokisud North coal block in Jharkhand on Tuesday.

Essar Power MP, won the coal block in the e-auction of coal mines for Rs 1110 per tonne.The block, which has all necessary clearances to begin mining, has extractable coal reserves of 52 million tonne. The company said that vital infrastructure like connectivity to the nearest railway sliding, merely 6 kms away, already exists, thereby reducing the block development time.

Corey Anderson and Grant Elliott produced a superbly timed 103-run partnership to take New Zealand into their first cricket World Cup final with a tense four-wicket win over South Africa at Eden Park on Tuesday.

Anderson (58) and Elliott (84 not out) had been thrust together at 149 for four in the 22nd over of the rain-effected semi-final and calmly took their side within sight of victory before Daniel Vettori joined Elliott to guide their side home to ecstatic scenes in Auckland.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed the controversial Section 66(A) of the Information Technology (IT) Act, which criminalizes “causing annoyance or inconvenience” online or electronically, stating that it violated the fundamental right to freedom of expression guaranteed to all citizens in Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution.

The court said that the provision introduced in 2009 to the original Act of 2000, used expressions “completely open-ended and undefined”. Every expression used is "nebulous" in meaning. “What may be offensive to one may not be offensive to another. What may cause annoyance or inconvenience to one may not cause annoyance or inconvenience to another. Even the expression ‘persistently’ is completely imprecise,” the 120-page judgement emphasised.

Banking shares continued to remain under pressure on the bourses with the Bank Nifty slipping for the fourth straight trading session.

State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, IndusInd Bank, Yes Bank and Punjab National Bank were down 1%-2% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

To strengthen its technical capabilities including for probes, Sebi is planning to beef up its team of officers by hiring IT experts to develop data mining and intelligence tools, as also to check cyber attacks.

These officers will develop data analytics and business intelligence tools, and also manage internal IT security and audit systems to guard against data loss and theft.

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