The shares of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) shot up by 4.39 per cent on Tuesday following a global brokerage firm CLSA’s prediction that the company’s refining margins might rise to six-year high in the current quarter. The report, however, has warned about the rising expenditure in the telecom, which is pulling down the company’s valuation.

Driven by improvement in naphtha crackers, petcoke spreads, higher light-heavy crude differentials and shrinkage in internal loss due to the lower Brent price, RIL’s March quarter’s refining margin could rise $3 a barrel on a quarter-to-quarter basis to a six-year high of $10.3 a barrel.

Banking shares are in demand with the Bank Nifty surging 581 points to 20,542 in early morning deal on NSE after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut the repo rate by 25 bps to 7.5% today.

Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of India, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and State Bank of India are up between 2-3%.

RBI's surprise rate cut, much before its next month's meeting, means good news for infra, realty as well as high-debt companies.

Banks had not cut their base rates after the RBI cut the repo rate by 25 basis points on Jan 15. The gains, however, which typically come with a lag should start reflecting soon.

Ford India today reported 2.63% increase in total sales at 12,576 units in February.

It had sold 12,253 units in February 2014, Ford India said in a statement.

State-owned oil explorer ONGC is not yet ready for stake sale and the government will consider divesting it only after the subsidy sharing mechanism between upstream companies and centre is finalized and oil prices rebound, Disinvestment Secretary Aradhana Johri said on Tuesday.

"All I can say is that ONGC is not ready for sale as of now," Johri told Business Standard in her first post-budget interview.

The union of Air India pilots, Indian Commercial Pilots Association, has directed its members not to operate flights with commanders which the airline proposes to hire on contract.

The Association, which represents pilots on narrow body Airbus A320 fleet has also asked the management to withdraw the recruitment advertisement. Last week, the airline had announced it would hire 197 pilots including commanders and senior trainee pilots for its Airbus A320 fleet.

The shares of Reliance Industries shot up by 4.31% on Tuesday following a global brokerage firm CLSA’s prediction that the company’s refining margins may rise to six year high. The report, however, has warned about the rising expenditure in telecom which is pulling down the company's valuation.

Driven by improvement in naphtha crackers, petcoke spreads, higher light-heavy crude differentials and shrinkage in internal loss due to the lower Brent price, RIL's March quarter’s refining margin could rise $3 per barrel on quarter to quarter basis to a six-year high of $10.3 a barrel.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that Indian economy needs to grow at 9-10 per cent and sustain that growth rate over the next decade and beyond to provide better infrastructure and bring down poverty rates.

Jaitley, who is here on a private visit, said India should aim to achieve 8 per cent growth rate this year and grow it to 9-10 per cent over the next 10 years and more.

India’s broader NSE Nifty index rose to a record high on Tuesday led by gains in Reliance Industries after CLSA said the conglomerate could report a record profit for the fourth quarter, while hopes of higher weightage in the MSCI index also helped.

The 50-share index rose as much as 0.45 pct to 8,996.80, surpassing its previous record high of 8,996.60 hit on Jan. 30.

Shares of Coal India Ltd tumbled nearly 6 per cent amid massive selling by investors as the stock went ex-dividend today.

The stock fell by 5.68 per cent to Rs 372.25 on the BSE. The blue-chip scrip was the biggest loser among the 30-Sensex constituents.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.