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.

ITC has dipped 9% to Rs 358 on National Stock Exchange (NSE) after the finance minister proposed to some changes in excise duty on cigarettes.

The stock has fallen nearly 13% from its record high of Rs 410 touched during intra-day trade today.

ITC has dipped 9% to Rs 358 on National Stock Exchange (NSE) after the finance minister proposed to some changes in excise duty on cigarettes.

The stock has fallen nearly 13% from its record high of Rs 410 touched during intra-day trade today.

Amid declining sales, DLF, the country’s largest real estate company, has had mounting problems since the start of this year.

Experts say it would need to urgently take some measures, including a sale of its land parcels in South India. To reduce its debt and generate cash flow, DLF plans to raise Rs 3,000 crore through divestment or joint ventures in certain projects. It is in talks with some private-equity entities for partly cashing out in some projects before their launches in 2015-16.

Air India (AI) is hiring nearly 200 pilots for its Airbus A320 planes, to meet a shortage caused by resignations, transfer of pilots to Boeing 787s and delays in training junior pilots for the rank of commander.

Government-owned AI has 60 Airbus A320 aircraft in various configurations and deploys these on the domestic network. A shortage of pilots and cabin crew is one reason for flight delays, the carrier's on-time performance being the lowest among its peers.

Weighed down by a staggering Rs 2,123-crore loss in the December quarter, Tata Motors, India’s largest automobile manufacturer, is offering a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to its employees to “enhance competitiveness”.

The scheme, the second in 13 months, has been extended to all categories of employees, including workmen and managerial cadres, against only to ‘white-collar’ employees the last time.

Mumbai: Tata group controlled Tata Motors Ltd, India’s largest auto maker by sales revenue, on Friday announced slew of initiatives including Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to enhance the company’s competitiveness.

The VRS is presently intended for the workmen, said the company in a release sent to BSE.

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