Country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) today reported 8.7 per cent increase in total sales in February at 1,18,551 units as against 1,09,104 units in the same period of last year.

The company said its domestic sales increased by 8.2 per cent during the month to 1,07,892 units as against 99,758 units in February 2014.

Mumbai: Bengaluru-based infrastructure conglomerate GMR Infrastructure Ltd on Monday said it plans to raise Rs.1,401.83 crore by selling shares to existing shareholders, in a bid to repay debt.

The issue will consist of 93.45 crore fully paid-up equity shares with face value of Rs.1 each, the company said in a filing to BSE. Eligible shareholders will be offered three shares for every 14 shares they hold.

Mumbai: Car maker Hyundai Motor India Ltd on Monday reported a 9.7% increase in its February domestic sales. The local arm of the South Korean car maker said it sold 37,305 units in the month against 34,005 units a year ago.

Rakesh Srivastava, senior vice-president of sales and marketing, credited the growth to additional and repeat buyers. He said such buyers were a bigger contributor to sales as compared with first-time buyers. He said the volumes were largely led by the i20, which found over 10,000 buyers during the month.

Merger of the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) allows a commodity exchange to expand in segments permitted under a stock exchange and vice versa.

From the proposed Bill in this regard, “all recognised associations under the Forward Contracts Regulation Act shall be deemed to be recognised stock exchanges under the Securities Contracts Regulation Act”.

Companies bidding for telecom spectrum and coal blocks might be in for a shock, as the Budget has proposed an enabling provision to allow service tax at 14 per cent on “all services” provided by the government to business entities.

“As of today, this will practically mean any service, including allocation of spectrum or mines, will attract service tax on the fee or royalty to be paid by companies,” says Sachin Menon, chief operating officer (tax), KPMG.

Shares of housing finance companies are trading lower by up to 4% on the bourses on profit booking after the Finance Minister presented the Union Budget 2015-16 in Parliament today.

LIC Housing Finance (4% at Rs 475), GIC Housing Finance (3% at Rs 243), Dewan Housing Finance (3% at Rs 495), Can Fin Homes (3% at Rs 609) and HDFC (down 2% at Rs 1,322) are trading lower in the range of 2-4% on the BSE.

Banking shares are in demand with the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Bank Nifty has surged over 500 points on hopes that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's proposal to simplify the procedures for local companies to attract foreign investments is likely to favour select private sector lenders who will now be able to raise additional money from foreign institutional investors (FIIs).

Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank and Yes Bank have rallied more than 5% each, while Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, Canara Bank , HDFC Bank and State Bank of India (SBI) are up 1-4% on NSE.

Taxi-hailing service Ola on Friday said the company has tied up with State Bank of India to provide car loans to drivers on its platform on a daily repayment basis. The initiative, Ola Pragati, will help drivers secure a loan of up to Rs 50 lakh for a maximum five years, with a downpayment of 10% and easier documentation. The company, which sees a monthly driver attrition rate of 3.5-4%, has mandated a minimum 60 hours of weekly service with Ola to avail the facility.

The benchmark BSE Sensex crashed 104 points after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s Union Budget 2015. Even the broader NSE Nifty dropped few points.

At 1:50 pm, the BSE Sensex was trading at 28975.57 down -0.84 per cent. The Nifty drops -0.59 per cent to 8783.80.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has announced that the Forward Markets Commission will be merged with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). While Sebi is the regulator for the capital markets, the FMC oversees commodities markets.

Among other things, he said that this will help reduce wild speculation.

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